FISHES OF THE CONNECTICUT LAKES. 55 
The breeding time of the trout varies somewhat with the locality 
and climate, and temperature of the water in which it lives. The 
spawning season may be from the last part of September to Decem- 
ber. In this region it probably varies also with the particular local- 
ity, whether small pond or brook, lake or stream. Although we made 
no observations in this direction, fish examined indicate that they 
would probably spawn in October. As is well known, trout spawn 
in shallow water on fine gravel beds in which they make a small 
hollow as a nest. The spawning beds may be a shoal in the lake or 
in some stream which the fish ascends for the purpose. The eggs are 
not all emitted at one time, but a female trout, usually attended by 
one and the same male, occupies the nest for several days. The eggs 
do not hatch until the following spring. The sexes differ much in 
appearance at this time, especially in large fish. The head of the 
male is longer, the lower jaw sometimes hooked, the mouth and teeth 
larger, and the coloration is more brilliant, the belly and some of the 
fins often being a brilliant red. The body of the male, too, has a 
thick coat of mucus, almost or quite obscuring the scales. 
Under favorable conditions trout grow rapidly, but there is no way 
of answering definitely the frequent interrogation, How long does 
it take a trout to grow? According to circumstances a trout may 
attain in 2 years only 3 or 4 inches in length, or it may attain 10 or 
more inches. Under certain conditions, as in circumscribed localities 
like a small brook, trout often reach maturity when only 4 or 5 inches 
long and still bearing the marks of young fish. Again, mature trout 
have been seen of not over 5 or 6 inches in length in which these 
marks of youth had nearly or quite disappeared, and the male fish 
was a facsimile of its larger brother of the lake. We have also seen 
in lakes of considerable size trout 9 and 10 inches long still immature. 
The food and game qualities of this fish are so well known to most 
residents and tourists in northern New England that it is unneces- 
sary to say much on these points. Trout vary in these respects 
in different waters and also, of course, with the age of the fish. Trout 
9 or 10 inches long with pink flesh, from a cool stream or lake, of 
which the previously mentioned Third Lake trout are examples, come 
very near to being the proverbial “ dish fit for a king.” The cause 
of the pink or reddish flesh of the trout is a much-discussed question 
which has not, so far as we are aware, been scientifically investi- 
gated. But we believe that the food of the fish has nothing further 
to do with it than its fattening effect on the fish. It is the fat in the 
tissues of the trout that is thus colored, and the plumper and fatter 
the fish, the more highly colored is its flesh. It is the flavor of the 
fat that gives the peculiar delicious flavor to trout so colored. A 
white-meated trout may be plump, but it is of leaner flesh and lacks 
the flavor of the other. Small trout in cold spring or mountain 
