Trout-tickling. 



THE COMMON TROUT 



T 



HE Common Trout is a fas- 

 cinating fish, whether we 

 regard it from the natural- 

 ist's point of view, or from 

 that of the angler. My 

 early history is inextricably 

 mixed up with its life and 

 haunts, for when I was a 

 boy nothing could keep me away from 

 the becks of my native county. I have 

 tickled it in brawling beck and sluggish 

 stream, and angled it with every known 

 form of rod, from an ash sapling to a 

 split cane. 



The ways of the Trout are past finding 

 out. One day it will be as sulky as a 

 donkey, and the next as playful as a 

 kitten. It is as fickle as fortune, and 

 as courageous as a lion. On some days 



it will feed like a gourmand, and upon 

 others, that appear to human judgment 

 equally suitable, it will fast like a soul- 

 mortifying saint. 



The diversity of food indulged in by 

 this fish is nothing less than astonishing. 

 I have caught it with a mouse in its 

 mouth, and bullheads, loaches, and even 

 members of its own species are in- 

 cluded in its dietary. Indeed, old Trout 

 are very liable to develop cannibalistic 

 habits in preference to obtaining a liveli- 

 hood by catching small flies, larvae, and 

 worms. 



In the autumn the majority of Trout 

 old enough to propagate their species 

 migrate up stream in search of suit- 

 able breeding quarters. A sluggish 

 tributary with a sandy or gravelly 



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