WATER POACHERS 185 



and would certainly injure the river; and Mr Bartlett 

 has stated that a pair of these birds which he kept in 

 confinement cost the Zoological Society a consider- 

 able sum in providing small fish for them. Frank 

 Buckland had a grebe sent to him which had been 

 choken by a bullhead, and the same fate has not 

 unfrequently befallen kingfishers and other aquatic 

 feeders. 



When the eggs of salmon and trout have been 

 submitted to the action of clear-running water for 

 a few months they begin to hatch. Prior to this the 

 young fish may be seen packed away in a most 

 beautiful manner. The embryo increases in bulk 

 until, on some warm April day, the tiny fish bursts its 

 shell and finds itself in a wide world of waters. 

 Individual eggs may be seen to hatch, and the process 

 is most interesting. First the shell splits at the part 

 corresponding to the back. Then a tiny head with 

 golden eyes appears, and after two or three con- 

 vulsive waves of his little tail the now useless 

 shells fall from him. He seems to enjoy the watery 

 element in which he finds himself, for away he swims 

 as fast as his tiny fins and wriggling tail will carry 

 him, round and round in a circle, until presently he 

 sinks down again to the sheltering gravel, for the 

 first time breathing freely by his delicate gills. 

 Every young salmon and trout has a tiny umbilical 

 sac attached, upon the contents of which it must 



