WATER POACHERS. 119 



waterways of salmon and trout. In this way I 

 have again and again taken ducks, coots, and 

 moorhens, with the spawn dropping from their 

 mouths and themselves glutted with it. Grebes 

 feed upon it, as do some of the coarse fish. In 

 mountainous countries the constantly-recurring 

 spates and freshets often destroy the eggs by cover- 

 ing them with sand and silt. Sometimes they 

 are washed clean away ; and when they get 

 strewn about the bed of the stream, there is 

 but little chance of surviving the attack of the 

 numerous water-beetles. These, too, make havoc 

 on the " redds," and as their numbers and 

 voracity are great, they are to be included in 

 the reckoning. Among them are the larvae of 

 the trout-loved May- and stone-flies, which on 

 nearly all streams prove so killing during the 

 early summer months. But, even at this stage, 

 probably the greatest enemy to salmon and trout 

 is pollution. The havoc committed by wild 

 creatures is as nothing to this. 



The moment the tiny fish emerge from the 

 egg they are exposed to fresh perils. Both 

 salmon and trout consider the smaller fry of their 

 own kind quite legitimate food. Pike and nu- 

 merous coarse fish are partial to the same repast ; 

 but the pretty water-shrew, often said to have the 

 same penchant, is wholly innocent. Often and 



