52 THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITS 



appeared in the egg ; and that in five weeks they had 

 bored their heads out through the shell. 



We may here notice what Mr. John Shaw, of 

 Drumlanrig, says of his experimenting on the trout 

 of the Nith, one of the tributaries of the Solway. 



" On the 1st of November, 1839, having disco- 

 vered a pair of sea-trout engaged in depositing their 

 spawn in the gravel of one of the small tributaries 

 of the Nith, and being unprovided at the moment 

 with the necessary apparatus for s their capture, I had 

 recourse to shooting, as the only mode within my 

 power of insuring instant possession of them. How- 

 ever, the vigilance exercised by both parents in pro- 

 tecting the ova from being devoured by multitudes of 

 smaller fishes which surrounded^ them, rendered it 

 exceedingly difficult to seize the precise moment at 

 which both might be disabled by one discharge of the 

 piece. This, however, was at length effected, by shoot- 

 ing immediately across the heads of the pair, as they 

 lay parallel to each other, but more by influence of 

 concussion than the actual effects of the shot, they 

 being at the time in about six inches deep of water. 

 Having taken them ashore, I proceeded to spawn them 

 by pressing the ova of the female into a little water 

 by the side of the stream, and afterwards by the same 

 process I caused the milt from the body of the male 



Applying Mr. H.'s impression as to the loss sustained during 

 the hatching process to the Tay experiment (and Mr. H. is evi- 

 dently a sanguine advocate in favour of artificial breeding), I feel 

 at liberty to deduct one-third from the 400,000 ova committed 

 to the Stormontfield boxes as a portion of the deposit likely, 

 during the process of hatching, to prove worthless. 



If the providing for the fry on their being hatched in artificial 

 ponds and reservoirs, and a supply of food administered by the 

 hand can so be termed, I view this stage of the experiment with 

 considerable apprehension. 



