192 SUMMER 



ever actually sleep ; but they certainly have periods of 

 unconsciousness which are indistinguishable from sleep in 

 other creatures. Once in Hampshire, after casting for some 

 time at a trout from behind without any result, the writer 

 next cast at it repeatedly from in front, and finally waded 

 into the river and touched its tail with a landing-net before 

 it suddenly dashed off in alarm. This was the more curious 

 as the fish was keeping itself in position with its fins on an 

 open shallow with a brisk current. Probably this slight 

 action of the fins is so habitual that the trout performs it 

 almost as mechanically as we breathe. In winter trout 

 retreat to the deepest part of their pools ; in severe drought 

 they creep into holes and lie half-torpid, almost like tench 

 in the mud. Small hill trout have a curious habit in 

 hot July weather of creeping into the stony shallows until 

 their spines are almost out of water ; they scramble away 

 when alarmed more like lizards than fish. They look as 

 though they were deliberately sunning themselves; but 

 they probably frequent these shallows for the sake of the 

 brisker play of the current across them when the stream is 

 shrunken and stagnant. It is a quest not for sunshine but 

 for oxygen. 



Trout have many foods, and varied habits of feeding. 

 The rings of the rising fish which abound on a lake or river 

 on a summer evening are seldom seen on many other streams 

 through long weeks of spring. Partly this is due to the 

 trembling water of the rougher streams, which tend to 

 conceal surface rises ; but it is largely a sign that the trout 

 are feeding under water, on minnows, fresh-water shrimps, 

 and various other small aquatic creatures, including flies in 

 their immature stages. In the life of the water-flies on which 

 trout feed the stage corresponding to the pupa or chrysalis 

 in moths is not helpless and inert, but active ; and these 



