REARING 227 



day will keep them in good condition through the 

 year, and that they would do very well on half that 

 allowance. And/ he adds, C I have also observed 

 that with two-year-olds five pounds of meat food is 

 an equivalent for one pound of trout growth. 7 



A summer's evening is perhaps the best time for 

 the visitor who wishes to ' see Jhe animals fed. 7 In 

 the winter a good opportunity occurs at noon on a 

 bright sunny day. Almost before the food has left 

 your hand the surface of the water will begin to 

 'boil, 7 and the food has hardly touched the water 

 before the commotion is such as to suggest the idea 

 of a seething cauldron. Not an atom of the food 

 will be allowed to reach the bottom, and many of the 

 fish shooting up like rockets, will hurl themselves 

 clean out of the water in their eagerness to avoid 

 being late for dinner. 



Especially is this so with those champion surface- 

 feeders, the rainbow trout, which, by their manner of 

 feeding alone, you would soon learn to distinguish 

 with your eyes shut. The commotion made by the 

 simultaneous lashing of the surface-water marks 

 Irideus as the possessor of that vigour and pluck 

 which is beginning to make him such a favourite with 

 the fly-fisher 



93 



