[368] BIRDS OF OREGON 



take trout and bass, food is furnished in such abundance by other fish, 

 crayfish, aquatic larvae, and batrachians, that few game fish are taken. 

 Frequently one hears the statement that the fish-eating birds must be 

 eating trout "as we have only trout in our river." Possibly there may 

 be such a favored spot, but we know of no Oregon streams that do not 

 swarm with many other species of fish, mostly of the nonfood group. 

 The statement is true of some of the high mountain lakes that were 

 without fish until planted with game fish, but there is an abundance of 

 aquatic insect larvae and other forms of life, even in those areas. If it 

 were not so, the fish themselves would find it hard to live save by can- 

 nibalism. 



