SPAWNING BEDS 31 



male fish keeps watch and ward over her, and 

 will at once attack any other fish which may 

 chance to be prying about. It is curious to note 

 what trouble fish will take in order to make a 

 suitable spawning-bed, and marvellous how large 

 a quantity of gravel or sand they contrive to 

 collect. These mounds are, when the river is low 

 in the summer, very plainly visible. A person 

 ignorant of such matters would not recognise 

 them. To a fisherman they are welcome indica- 

 tions of the prosperity of the river. The places 

 selected for them are generally at the head of 

 some pool, in the shallower water, or on what are 

 termed the * flats ' of a river in contradistinction 

 to the more rapid portion. Francis Francis states 

 that there are some rivers, of which he quotes 

 the Wandle as an instance, in which the trout do 

 not spawn until February, and that there are a 

 few in which they may be found spawning as 

 late as March. These latter are, however, very 

 exceptional cases ; nor do I know what is the 

 cause why these rivers should be so very much 

 later. Of course the fish are in such cases cor- 

 respondingly backward in getting into condition. 



Yarrell mentions a case where two specimens 

 of the common trout, which were taken early in 

 January, were found to be full of the roe of the 

 bull-trout, which they had been eating, and as 

 these two fish were in unusually good condition 



