164 American Fisheries Society 



sometimes perhaps only one of the individual lakes, or 

 cutoffs, or swampy breeding places, or the back waters, 

 or other aquatic conditions which afford a peculiar op- 

 portunity for the development of a certain type of fish 

 fauna. 



What can this Society do? Various organizations 

 somewhat similar in general character have been suc- 

 cessful in developing a series of bird reserves and a 

 series of game parks under national and state auspices. 

 Shall we acknowledge that we are less educated or less 

 influential or less energetic? 



DISCUSSION 



Dr. F. L. Riser, Henderson, Colo. : Reason and discrimination 

 must be used in the matter of fish protection. The large fish eat the 

 little fish. If we protect the big fish, the little fish will disappear. 

 They have a law here punishing a man for killing a night heron and 

 a blue heron. Yet they are the worst things I have to contend with. 

 Those birds will destroy more fish in a night than I can carry away 

 in a day. Then I think there should be some way of getting the 

 largest fish out of the streams, and giving the young fellows a chance. 

 A large trout will clean up a whole stream in a short time. I think 

 that is one of the enemies of small fish that is sometimes overlooked. 

 Most fishermen will get the little fish, but don't get the big fellows. 

 There ought to be a way of getting the big fish out of the stream. 



Mr. C. H. Thomson, Colorado : It seems to me a paper of this 

 kind ought not to lack for somebody to speak upon it. The protection 

 of our fish is one of the serious propositions which we have to con- 

 tend with, not only the pollution of the streams, but the protection 

 of our streams. Right here in Colorado the kingfisher, an arch enemy 

 of the fish, is a protected bird of plumage. 



As we are stocking our streams with small fish, we must not forget 

 the troubles that small fish have with their enemies. Among these 

 enemies are snakes. I could show you, if I had you in my hatchery 

 at Estes Park, three fish over two inches long that I took from a snake's 

 body before it had begun to digest them. The larger fish are living 

 upon the smaller ones; it is the nature of all of our game fish. I 

 took pity upon my pet fish in my hatching trough because I thought 

 it was lonesome. This fish, a brook trout four years old, is so tame 

 that I can take it out of the water with my hand and it will lie very 

 quietly until I place it back into the water again ; and I have shown 

 it to 4.500 people. This year, as I say, I took pity on that fish because 

 of its loneliness, and placed a yearling trout seven inches long in the 



