142 In Pursuit of the Trout 



Itchen, and other streams because anglers 

 discovered that out of may-fly season they 

 could kill trout by no other method of fly- 

 fishing ; and within the last ten years or so 

 it has been adopted on the Derbyshire Wye 

 for much the same reason. Undoubtedly the 

 average trout has greatly increased in saga- 

 city in these streams. The only question 

 is, w^hether this added intelligence is of an 

 hereditary kind or not. Professor Romanes, 

 in his little work, ' Animal Intelligence,' 

 touches the mere fringe of this question. His 

 view is that 'the marked increase of wariness' 

 in trout is the result of observations made by 

 each trout for itself; but he does not seem 

 to have very closely studied the matter, for he 

 gives no good reason for arriving at such a 

 conclusion. One writer stated it as his 

 opinion, I believe, that it is scarcely possible 

 for this intelligence to be transmitted, be- 

 cause the parent fish have no opportunities 

 of teaching their young, as various birds 

 and beasts have. Another writer — the late 

 Mr. Andrews, I think — whose views on a 



