A Sportsman 423 



very thin and flat,with most intensified colors, and when 

 so caught has almost invariably an empty stomach. 



I have observed the spawning trout on the beds 

 a great many times, about the shores of the lakes 

 and ponds, in the late autumn on clear, still 

 days, and in November and December through the 

 ice. The latter observation is the most satisfac- 

 tory, and is obtained by cutting a hole a foot or 

 two square through over the spawning beds, which 

 may be but two or three feet below the surface. By 

 placing a blanket or two on the ice for reclining upon, 

 and by placing another over the head, shutting out 

 the immediate light, the trout can be observed in 

 full play. The disturbance occasioned by cutting and 

 clearing out the hole is over in a few minutes, and the 

 trout below soon become entirely fearless. On some 

 beds the spawners seem to be without particular mates, 

 having a half-dozen or more cavaliers in attendance, 

 whose amatory distractions donot seem to interfere with 

 their appetites, and who indiscriminately make a grand 

 rush for the eggs as soon as deposited, and it may be that 

 there are several spawning heaps or beds immediately 

 adjoining and half a dozen spawners at work, attended 

 by a dozen or more males, who apparently secure every 

 egg for digestion. I have sometimes seen fifty and even a 

 hundred trout thus congregated in an area not over 10 ft- 

 square, and in such close proximity that there was hard- 

 ly any intervening space between them. The spawning 

 beds are generally composed of a slightly raised mound of 

 gravel two or three feet in diameter ; sometimes the beds 

 are on the clean sands, without any coarse gravel what- 

 ever; sometimes among pebbles and a bottom grass. 



The spawning beds often receive a hard scouring for 



