' Trout Breeding. 91 



throws it out and settles down on the bottom to rest, its 

 curiosity having been satisfied. 



Take up one now in. a glass tube and note that the 

 embryonic fin which ran from the insertion of the Dorsal 

 fin around the tail to the anal fin, like the fin of an eel, 

 has been absorbed and the permanent fins are developed. 

 The sac which seemed to be absorbed appears like a bit 

 of amber in the cleft abdomen, as though the fish were 

 about to split open. The sac is almost absorbed and the 

 walls of the abdomen will join together over it and the 

 embryo will be a trout in a few days. Yet it will take 

 food by the mouth before the sac is fully absorbed, and 

 a proof of this is not in its seizing floating particles, but 

 in its passing of ordure. Nothing passes the embryo 

 trout while subsisting on its sac ; the yolk is pure nutri- 

 ment, with no waste, but when it begins to feed with its 

 mouth there is a waste which is common to all animals 

 after leaving the embryo stage, and the troughs must be 

 feathered down every day. 



The fish with curled tails cannot be helped. They 

 cannot swim and must spin around in one direction, and, 

 being unable to seek food, must die. The "double 

 headers" occur in many shapes, from two and even 

 three heads to fish merely joined at the tail, and even 

 "twins," which were two apparently perfect and dis- 

 tinct fish, but with only one umbilical sac between them. 

 1 have tried to rear thousands of these monstrosities and 

 have had them take food with both heads for several 

 days and then find them dead some morning. The 

 salmon and trout seem to be more given to producing 

 monstrosities than any other fishes on my visiting list. 



A little salt is good to sprinkle at the head of the 

 trough occasionally if there is a sign of fungus from fin 

 or tail nibbling. 



