IMITATION OF THE NATURAL INSECT 173 



under an insect in this position for a distance of 

 about three feet, and stopped, apparently aban- 

 doning it; but the next instant he turned, took 

 it quietly, and swam slowly back to his station. 

 I was unable to see this insect as clearly as I 

 wished, and I do not know that it moved at the 

 moment it was taken, but from the manner in 

 which the fish took the others, it seems likely 

 that this was the case. Notwithstanding the 

 decided preference shown by this fish for the 

 moving or living insects, he rose and took a 

 piece of a twig about three eighths of an inch 

 long which I flipped to him at a moment when 

 he was unoccupied, and I found this twig in his 

 stomach the next day, together with three spruce 

 needles, two of which were green and one yel- 

 low. Would the presence of this drift stuff in 

 his stomach indicate that the fish was near- 

 sighted, or that such drift really had a place in 

 his dietary? 



I have found in the stomachs of trout many 

 small sticks, plainly fresh, and which certainly 

 formed no part of a caddis casing. Why they 

 were taken is hard to say; some anglers have 

 expressed the opinion, which may possibly be 

 sound, that the fish are compelled to take them 

 in the attempt to secure some poor shipwrecked 

 insects which are using them as rafts. I prefer 



