54 FISHES OF THE CONNECTICUT LAKES. 
permit of much generalization. The habits necessarily vary with the 
habitat, also with the size of the fish. It may be said, however, that 
by nature the trout is a denizen of cool water. It is carnivorous and 
almost omnivorous within carnous limits, levying upon nearly every 
class of animal, worms, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, batrachians, 
fishes, birds, and mammals. It will eat its own eggs and young as 
well as those of other fishes. We have never known a trout to 
eat a frog or a tadpole, but have found in its stomach the next 
thing to it, the common water-newt (Diemyctelus viridescens), and 
have caught trout with a land-newt (Plethodon erythronotus) as bait. 
The main food supply of young trout is insect larvee, insects, and 
other small invertebrates; a list of the insects and other things that 
have been found in trouts’ stomachs would “ fill a book.” But the 
trout does not feed at all times. In most waters its feeding times are 
usually morning and early evening; apparently it does not feed much, 
if any, during warm sunny days, but if at all on such days, in the cool 
of the evening. It is probable, as is indicated by its behavior toward 
anglers, that it does not feed at all in warm bodies of water during 
the latter part of the summer. It ceases to bite at the advent of warm 
weather and begins to bite again on the first cool days of autumn. 
The following notes present some of the more important observa- 
tions upon the food of the trout of these waters: 
June 30, Second Lake: One trout 12 inches long contained a num- 
ber of chub minnows (Couesius plumbeus). 
July 6 and 7, Mud Pond Brook near First Lake: A trout 6 inches 
long had in its stomach a blob (Cottus gracilis) 2.5 inches long, a 
dragon-fly larva, and a worm; still another had been feeding upon 
insects and insect eggs. 
July 21, in small spring inlet of Mud Pond: Five trout, 6.04 to 
6.91 inches long, contained flies, caddis larvee in cases, and fragments 
of other insects, and 2 contained 4 and 5 seeds of the yellow pond 
lily, respectively, and some alge and conferve. 
August 18, Third Lake: Trout measuring from 10.75 to 18.25 
inches long had most of them been feeding upon some fine stuff with 
which the water this day was thickly permeated. It was a minute 
living organism the nature of which could not be determined. That 
the trout were feeding upon this may account for the fact that no 
trout were caught until evening. One contained a piece of back- 
bone of some small fish, another had fragments of insects. 
August 29, Second Lake: A 14-inch trout contained a partly 
digested chub minnow. 
The only intestinal parasites observed were in a small trout from 
Mud Pond Brook near First Lake which contained a thread worm 
(nemertean) and in a 13.25-inch trout at Third Lake which was full 
of tapeworms (Bothriocephalus). 
