50 THE HABITS OF FISH. 



play these pranks : yet, inasmuch as these are 

 " anti-fly-takers," and feed at bottom, no one can 

 suppose they seek to feed at such moments. It is 

 a beautiful sight, but by no means an encou- 

 raging one, except as saying, " Here we are, 

 come, catch us< if you can !" I like to see trout 

 come to the surface quietly, scarce breaking it, 

 but merely " sucking in" the floating prey : then 

 is the time ! This habit of fish, of which I am 

 speaking, is one of the subjects I have often 

 wished to point out to the attention of some sci- 

 entific body, from a persuasion that the research 

 might lead to important results in the advance of 

 science; another subject for their investigation 

 being, why it is that fish will often rise, for a 

 certain half hour only, during the day, in search 

 of flies at the surface, or in search of prey. Al- 

 though fishermen must frequently have noticed 

 this peculiarity, yet it has never, to my mind, 

 been even attempted to be satisfactorily explained. 

 Salmonia treats it lightly, attributing it to a very 

 insufficient cause ; namely, a certain fly coming 

 in abundance on the water. But if we compare 

 notes, we shall find that this has little or nothing 

 to do with it. We all know that in different 

 parts of a stream, miles distant, fish often rise 

 freely during the same half hour in the day only ; 

 and, although the same flies have preceded and 

 followed that half hour in as great abundance, 



