THE SALMON AND ITS MIGRATIONS 189 



always take it. At other times small bits would 

 be taken and immediately ejected. Black flies, 

 ants, maggots and deer flies would invariably be 

 retained. Of the larger insects they would some- 

 times make three or four attempts before they 

 would succeed in swallowing them. When parr 

 are abundant in a certain portion of a river, one 

 may constantly see them leaping and feeding. 

 Therefore, may not this habit of the salmon ris- 

 ing to a fly be simply a survival of a youthful 

 habit, leading them to chase any insect that ap- 

 pears and then ejecting it, since it is not requir- 

 ed as food. 



For the joy of all salmon anglers I hope that 

 this particular instinct will never be lost! 



(Btwnwa 0f tlje Salman. Now and again I 

 have noticed, especially after a poor fishing 

 year, that an outcry has been raised against the 

 salmon netters : rivers were threatened with de- 

 pletion and so on. Now I firmly believe that the 

 netter is one of the smallest enemies of the salmon. 

 If we take such an insignificant bird as the 

 kingfisher and its brood, and make a very 

 moderate estimate of the numbers of small fry 

 they kill, we find that in numbers it about equals 

 one-half of the total catch of the netters in the 

 whole county of Saguenay. Aside from this, of 

 the feathered tribe, there are thousands of shel- 

 drakes, loons, ospreys and eagles taking their 

 share, and also porpoises, seals, bears, otters and 



