108 Tivcnty-nintli Annual Meeting 



has, year after year, practically shut out that function, besides 

 undoubtedly destroying numbers of adult fish. 



Tricolor habits are, for ten months in a year, strictly local. 

 During this period he will occupy a portion of a river bed cir- 

 cumscribed by one square foot of space. Xo matter if hundreds 

 are domiciled in a bend of the river, each and every one keeps 

 separate house. If disturbed, driven out, each returns to the 

 precise spot which he formerly occupied. About the lOth of 

 March there is a general exodus from their haunts, n run down 

 stream. When nature prompts their return they begin a linger- 

 ing ascent or up run, performing spawning functions on the way 

 up stream, at points for which the gravid fishes have a special 

 predeliction, on either sand or gravel, according to the character 

 of their habitat. 



Tricolors' habits or preferences are immutably fixed, as un- 

 changeable as fate — she has a preference for a particular portion 

 of the river's bed on which to spawn and there she will deposit her 

 ova or not at all. If a log jam rests on the spot of her choice — 

 as is often the case — being piled from the bottom to the surface 

 of the water, she will hold onto her eggs until the germ dies, 

 .rather than cast them in any other place. These traits render it 

 an impossibility to propagate the species anywhere else but in 

 their native haunts. 



In short, the Michigan type of Thymallus must have a down 

 run. She must also find her spawning ground unobstructed on 

 her return, or propagation of her kind is off for that season. The 

 experience of several years devoted to efforts at domestication 

 of grayling convinces me that it is impracticable. 



I believe, however, that protected propagation of 1li\'inallus 

 tricolor is both practicable and feasable; provided a stream can 

 be found where logging operations are a thing of rhe past, and 

 where enough grayling have survived to serve as a nucleus for 

 future operations under the protection and manipulation of fish- 

 culturists. 



