ITS MODE OF SPAWNING. 





In accordance with this notion, I hold the spawning 

 and covering seasons to be in a manner distinct, fol- 

 lowing, it is true, close upon each other, yet by 

 no means one and the same season. The latter, in 

 fact, is as the rutting time, the former the calving. 

 Although I mention September as the month in which 

 the female trout usually deposits her ova, yet I have 

 frequently, as early as July, captured individuals on 

 the eve of spawning, the leaves of roe being fully deve- 

 loped, each bead or particle having attained its maxi- 

 mum size, and readily, in obedience to the slightest 

 pressure, issuing from its natural outlet. This state of 

 maturity during the summer, I have further observed, 

 is more marked among large trout than those of the 

 ordinary size; but never that I can recollect have I 

 met with a milter proportionally matured, before the 

 latter end of September, and rarely even then. 



While angling with the salmon-roe, I have fre- 

 quently, during the winter months, picked off below the 

 same stance a dozen he-fish, all of them on being 

 landed shedding their milt in its ripest state. On such 

 occasions, they generally took the bait at the tail of a 

 stream, and in thin or shallow water. Among these, 

 I have caught also kelted females and numerous 

 other trout, not marked as breeders ; but seldom have 

 I fallen in with a fish actually on the eve, or in the 

 course of spawning; whereas, during August or Sep- 

 tember, while angling with the same bait, I have found 

 the result to be in a manner the reverse, that is, I 

 have frequently taken a number of ripe spawners, and 

 it might happen several male trout; the latter, how- 

 ever, being in a state of comparative backwardness as 

 regarded the milt. 



Trout, during the spawning and covering seasons, 

 c 



