THE FRY STAGE 85 



but I think that the young fish which have hatched out together in 



neighbouring redds in the one little spawning tributary tend to remain 



together. I would wish to make my meaning perfectly clear in regard 



to this matter. I do not of course pretend that the sea-trout fry are 



gregarious, as a shoal of minnows which cruises up and down the still 



waters of a pool is gregarious, each individual minnow conforming in 



its movements to the general movements of the shoal. All I suggest 



is that the sea-trout fry hatched out in any stretch of shingle remain 



together in that stretch of shingle, until the necessity of seeking other 



quarters where richer feeding may be obtained arises. When the 



necessity arises I am inclined to think that all the fish hatched out 



together seek the richer feeding grounds in a body, dropping down 



stream to the main river, or to a loch, if such is within immediate reach. 



The Loch Lomond district, with its numberless little streams, many 



of which have perhaps no more than a dozen yards or so of spawning 



ground, offers peculiar opportunity for observation. Where one of 



these streams is so small as to be obviously incapable of providing food 



for the growing fry in it, these are known to desert the stream and seek 



sustenance in the loch where the shoal can be seen on a calm day 



cruising along the shore. I believe, further, that sooner or later shoals 



of these young fish even cross deep water to the feeding banks of the 



numerous islands where these are near the parent stream. The shoals 



which thus take up their feeding ground spread over the banks as the 



growth of each young fish demands for it a wider range. 



But doubtless every district has its own type of feeding ground, in 

 river, loch or even brackish water, and such fry as are not driven by 

 force of bare necessity to seek a livelihood elsewhere scatter themselves 

 over the shallows in the neighbourhood of the redds in which they were 

 spawned, redds which are almost always in some inconsiderable 

 tributary of a greater stream. Here they spend an active existence in 

 summer in pursuit of food and in evading their natural enemies. By 



