904 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



To improve the foodsupply, efforts have been made to iftiport and accHmatize 

 shrimps, to attract Ephemeridae by growing flowering plants, and by planting 

 watercress to increase the supply of Entomostraca. As yet it is too early to pro- 

 nounce on the success of these measures. 



Waterweeds have been advocated by many. But there are no trout to speak 

 o f in the Sandy Nullah Stream and the Ootacamund Lake where weeds abound. 

 They have estabhshed themselves in the Big Bend of the Mukerti River where 

 there are complaints about the quality of the fishing. They obstruct the current 

 and they make angling difficult. It is desirable to estimate their effect in the 

 Mukerti River before embarking further on the experiment. 



But there is no real proof that, given a reasonable stock of fish, the food supply 

 is inadequate or that new blood is required. As the result of living principally on 

 crabs which abound at the bottom of the streams, the Nilgiri Trout after a few 

 years becomes a bottom-feeder pure and simple. He takes the fly more and more 

 shyly as the years roll by and finally ceases to rise at all. 



The fact that up to a size of ten inches, he is continually being hooked and re- 

 turned to the water, may have an adverse effect. 



Owing to the prevailing direction of the wind in the fishing season, one has to 

 cast downstream instead of up. The result of striking, therefore, is to pull the fly 

 in a large number of instances out of the fish's mouth,^to prick him and to 

 make him shy rather than to catch him. 



Though the record fish caught on a fly in 1919 was only 2f lbs. and in 1920, 2 

 lbs. 14 oz., yet it is probable that b}^ netting some of the large pools in the lower 

 reaches of the rivers where the fish are bottom-feeders, it would be easy to get 

 specimens of six or eight pounds. 



It would be interesting to speculate as to the ultimate fate of these monsters 

 of the lower reaches. Do they continue indefinitely to eat up the available food 

 supply or are they impelled to migrate further into the region of snakes and 

 otters and the falls and cataracts of the slopes ? We all know that the rainbow 

 trout is prone to disappear even through what appears to be solid masonry. 

 Apart from periodical migration connected with the breeding impulse, the general 

 tendency is to go downstream. Mere physical difficulties will not stop this. 

 Mr. S. C. Berrige and one of the writers have found them far down the Billitad- 

 dahalla at the foot of relatively high falls. One of the writers has found both 

 large and small fish far down the gorges of the united Thiashola and Pirmund 

 streams. 



In 1920, the whole of the trout in the Yemmakal migrated, possibly into 

 the Pj'kara, although a waterfall intervenes. Tradition has it that the late 

 Mr. H. C. Wilson Avas of opinion that sooner or later the trout on the Mlgiris 

 meet their end by being dashed to pieces on the cliffs in an insane rush for the sea. 



It has also been alleged that they burrow in mud and that thousands which 

 have mysteriously disappeared may thus have met their end. (Editor, Fishing 

 Gazette, Febr. 22, 1919.) 



Making every allowance for migration or for suicide, the tendency on the 

 Nilgiris is for the fish to exhaust the available food supply. In this connection 

 the history of Rainbow trout in New Zealand is interesting. As in the Nilgiris, 

 the tendency is for reproduction to outstep the food supply (Howell). The advent 

 of countless flocks of starlings and other insectivorous birds reduced the food 

 falling into the rivers in the shape of grasshoppers, cicada, etc., and the fish 

 consequently ran smaller and became more migratory in their habits (Fishing 

 C4azette, March 13, 1920). The Hon. Secretary of the Ceylon Fishing Club also 

 writes that the trout in some of the Ceylon Streams are getting smaller. They 

 are outstripping the foodsupply. He advocates the formation of food farms. It 

 is difficult to breed both for size and numbers. One or other must go to the wall. 

 As natural reproduction in the Nilgiris is magnificent and is supplemented by 

 the outturn from the hatchery, there is no necessity to have any size limit. The 



