THE TROUT 3 



land, where insect and other food is plentiful ; 

 there the fish thrive and put on weight. 

 This also applies to the trout of certain lakes. 

 Whereas, in the Highlands, and the north 

 of England, the trout of the burns and becks 

 are often hard put to it to secure a bare 

 sufficiency of food. 



2. Spawning and growth. 

 No matter what their surroundings, with 

 the approach of autumn the trout migrate to 

 the spawning beds, there to reproduce their 

 kind. Often they are held up on the way 

 owing to lack of sufficient water, but sooner 

 or later a flood comes, and they leave the 

 pools and race forward to their destination. 

 Either en route, or on arrival, the male 

 trout selects a female, and the spawning 

 process begins. The female fish does all the 

 work, fanning away the gravel with her 

 tail, until she has made a hollow known as 

 a " redd." Into this she sheds her eggs, 

 and as the male fish fertilizes them, by the 

 same fanning process she covers them with 

 gravel and keeps moving slowly forward. 

 The spawning period lasts for several days, 

 after which the females gradually drop down- 

 stream. The fish are then thin and com- 

 pletely out of condition. The males do not 



