Trout Breeding. 87 



with head and sac in the shell, driving it here and there 

 as if it meant business until the shell drops away. 



In trout culture the hatching is a simple matter, and 

 one that is easily learned, so that a child can attend to 

 it ; the real difficulty for a novice being in keeping the 

 young fish the first year and overcoming, first, the dis- 

 position of half of them to die without apparent cause 

 or provocation during the nrst three months, and, sec- 

 ondly, the propensity to escape through an unseen 

 crack or a defective screen ; but the second season all 

 that are left seem to thrive well and to be contented 

 with their confinement, provided a gate is not left open 

 for them to get into the stream, and even then they are 

 liable to return at the spawning time. 



A newly hatched trout would never be classed as a 

 young trout by one who sees it for the first time. They 

 look like small threads of albumen, which have great 

 eyes, and attached to the belly is the great yolk-sac, 

 about as large as the original egg. They cannot swim, 

 but move about on the bottom in an apparently aimless 

 manner, seeking to avoid light. In the brooks they 

 would scatter and bury themselves in the gravel, but in 

 the troughs they huddle and crowd in corners to avoid 

 the light, for they take no food until their haversack, 

 with thirty to forty days' rations, is exhausted and their 

 instinct is to hide. This is a critical time. They may 

 pile on top of their fellows and smother the bottom ones. 

 This must be prevented. Keep the upper parts of the 

 trough darkened with covers or window shades and let 

 the outlet screens be in the light. This will prevent 

 them from squeezing in any crack about the screen and 

 dying there, or of .their letting tails or parts of sacs 

 through the wire-cloth and perishing. 



The crowding is worse while they are young and deli- 



