98 GOLDEN DAYS 



will see her hovering above the river, 

 dropping her eggs in one by one. She 

 has, indeed, a most prodigious family I 

 Yet have they many enemies, and roving 

 sticklebacks will thin their ranks during 

 the two years that they must remain in 

 the soft gravel nursery. The old drake 

 is now growing weary, her birth-flights 

 slow. Lower and lower she falls, till at 

 length she sinks inanimate upon the water. 

 It is then that, with wings outstretched, 

 she floats away down-stream as the spent- 

 gnat. This final phase provides food for 

 the fish ; but it is while undergoing the 

 earlier, sub-i7nago change that the female 

 is most freely taken by the trout, while 

 swallows and birds of all kinds devour the 

 Mayfly in their hundreds. 



Here on our little brook fat green drakes 

 were fluttering everywhere, crawling up 

 the reed-stems, hovering above the alder- 

 bushes, and floating gaily down the sun- 

 capped ripple where the fish were rising 

 furiously. Alas ! these trout are only 

 small ones ; this golden, shallow brook 

 holds but fingerlings, eight to the pound. 

 They would be fun with an 00 midge 



