FEEDING TIMES OF TROUT. 33 



of diminutive leech, in shape resembling a small 

 clove, and called by Walton "the sug or trout 

 louse." The fish remain in this state till return- 

 ing spring exerts its invigorating influence, pro- 

 ducing abundance of food, and enabling them to 

 remove to the more shallow parts of the stream 

 and its stickles, up which they advance by de- 

 grees. Here, becoming gradually purified and 

 strengthened, they are at last fair game for the 

 sportsman, if they by chance escape the wiles of 

 the prowling poachers who are allowed by an 

 indifferent legislature to destroy so wantonly a 

 large proportion of what might, with hardly any 

 trouble, become staple food for the dense popula- 

 tion of these islands, and be an endless source of 

 innocent and healthful enjoyment. 



Trout, in common with most kinds of fish, feed 

 chiefly by night; but in cloudy weather, and, 

 when the water is discoloured, even in sunshine, 

 they often feed in the day-time induced, no 

 doubt, by the similarity to their vision of these 

 conditions of the water and atmosphere to the 

 evening twilight, and by the presence of a tempt- 

 ing quantity of flies or other kinds of food. At 

 any rate, cloudy days are those on which the 

 angler's wiles are most likely to be successful. 

 The trout then haunt, for feeding places, the sides 



