SIZE AND SEASON OF TROUT COMPARED. 41 



it grows to a very large size when the fish is about to deposit its 

 spawn. 



The size of the trout, at least in the Whit adder, does not 

 determine the condition of the roe and milt. I have examined 

 trout early in September, not exceeding six inches in length, in 

 which the ova of the roe were largely developed and actively 

 increasing ; and at ,the same time, on the same day, and in the 

 same river, have taken many trout twelve or fourteen inches 

 long, with milt and roe at their minimum. I have observed the 

 same hold good in October. The same holds good in the salmon. 

 On the 25th of October, I caught some trout in Lochskene, 

 which had been feeding on ova ; this was the only occasion in 

 which I ever detected ova in the stomach of a trout. 



On the 6th of July, of sixty trout taken in some of the streams 

 of the Whitadder at the same time, there were fifty-eight males, 

 two females. In May, in the same river, the sexes were equal. 

 In August, 1832, thirty-four trout taken with fly, in a feeder of 

 the Whitadder, gave the following results : 



8 male (average 9 inches) .... milt very large. 

 5 do. do. .... milt very small. 



5 do. (average 5 inches) .... milt very large. 

 1 do. do. .... milt very small. 



15 females, with the ova in various conditions, but none 



much developed. 



34. 



