BIOLOGICAL 119 



The eye is placed high in the head as one would expect 

 of a fish that might be called " insectivorous." 



In coloration the brook trout is truly a thing of 

 beauty. A recently caught male fish of fifteen ounces 

 lies before me as I write. Looking down on the back 

 it appears to be purplish in color, the lighter vermicula- 

 tions or worm marks mottling the back almost like the 

 so-called mackerel sky; the dorsal fin is similarly 

 marked. The sides, in the middle, are covered with 

 spots much lighter than the green-gray ground color. 

 Many of these spots seemingly haphazardly are 

 themselves decorated with tiny dots of brilliant red, 

 most of these red spots being below the distinct median 

 line and none of them behind the anterior end of the 

 anal fin. The tail fin is mottled red, bordered with 

 black. The belly is light colored with just a sugges- 

 tion of pink and azure, the tiny scales giving it a 

 silken sheen, most beautiful to behold. The lower fins 

 are red, slightly flecked with dark spots and with a 

 black and white edging. 



Male fishes always carry more red than females and 

 are most gorgeously colored during the breeding sea- 

 son. The environment has much to do with colora- 

 tion. I have taken fish above a dam in dead water 

 with muck bottom that were velvety black on the back 

 and much darker throughout; below the same dam, 

 where the bottom is sand and gravel, I have taken fish 

 so much lighter and brilliant that a novice would be 

 tempted to believe them of a different species; from 



