The Waking of the Fishes 



lives in the vicinity of brooks, rivers, or 

 ponds, and particularly of streams flowing 

 into the sea, may be sure of rich returns 

 from time spent, during the month of April, 

 in observing the fishes. All waters are then 

 alive with them, while the great instinct 

 and necessity of reproduction is stimulating 

 them to utmost activity, and at the same 

 time bringing out their most interesting 

 habits. 



Let us glance first at the migratory habits 

 of some of our commoner fishes, such as 

 may be found, during the warmer months 

 of the year, in almost any stream larger than 

 a rivulet. Do such fish, for instance, as the 

 perch, the sucker, the sunfish, the bass, the 

 pike, and the brook trout, ever migrate? 

 It is the common impression, I am aware, 

 that they do not, and yet a careful study of 

 their habits proves them to be what we call, 

 among the birds, "semi-migrants." That is 

 to say, these fishes pass down from the 

 higher waters of streams to the lower and 

 warmer waters, and very often into larger 

 streams or into ponds and lakes, returning 

 with the waking season in the spring to the 

 shallower waters, where they breed and 



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