TROUr CULTURE ON TEE NILGIRIS. 909 



dung is very scarce near the trout rivers whilst fish are not available at Ootaca- 

 mund where dung, the natural breeding ground of the fly, is plentiful. A detailed 

 account of how to conduct the experiment was published in the " South of India 

 Observer " at Ootacamund in December, 1920. 



Experiments conducted in the United States indicated that a food mixture 

 consisting of wheat middlings and meat meal although not injurious and appa- 

 rently an acceptable food for the fish, does not compare with fresh hog lungs as 

 a food for yearling trout. (U. S. Fisheries Service Bureau, November 1, 1919). 



Pests :— These have been enumerated briefly on page 901. 



It is intended in this place only to touch upon otters. Mr. Howell considers 

 them a greatly exaggerated evil. Writing at p. 320 of Vol. XXIV, No. 2, of the 

 Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society he says : — " I have watched 

 an otter at work for hours (without his knowing it) from a point where every 

 motion was visible. He fished hard the whole time and caught nothing in a pool 

 full of fish. I agree with Mr. Armistead that an otter lives on many things be- 

 sides fish ; and that it is only in confined waters like a stock pond that he does 

 wholesale damage, and in my heart I do not grudge him a trout or two." 



From this opinion the writers respectfully beg to differ. It may be true of 

 the otter of the Himalayas. It is essentially inapplicable to the Nilgiris otter. 

 It is true that the smaller reddish otter may not do very much harm. But 

 unfortunately the large grey variety, once unknown on the Hills, is now coming 

 up from the plains. In one specimen of dung which one of the writers examined, 

 there were no crab remains. About fifteen per cent, by weight consisted of bones 

 of trout. In another specimen lower down the river, fragments of crab predomi- 

 nated, the percentage of trout bones being above five. 



Further evidence of their destructive tendencies may be gleaned from statis- 

 tics of fish caught. In 1918, fishing hard for a whole week from Avalanche 

 Bungalow and in the absence of any size limit, retaining all the fish caught, the 

 return of one of the writers (Mr. Bryant) shewed a catch of 17 fish. In 1920 

 fishing for a week in his spare time, he caught no less than 75 fish. There was 

 no appreciable difference in methods. More or less the same flies were used. 

 The only change was that in the interval Mr. Bryant had insisted on the destruc- 

 tion of otters in this particular river and had paid rewards for nine of them out 

 of his own pocket. The upper reaches were simply boiling with yearlings, and 

 even in the lower stretches at Parry's Bungalow and Mclvor's Bund, where prior 

 to 1920 there were few or no trout, relatively large catches might be made. The 

 opinion is not that of the writer alone — it is concurred in by Mr. N. E. A. Main- 

 waring and Col. Molesworth, I.M.S. Both gentlemen have in fact stated in writ- 

 ing that the river is overstocked. 



The most important part of the watchers' work in future is to locate the holts 

 and lay unbaited gins in and around them. Especial attention should be given 

 to this in the breeding season when the large trout are in the shallow upper 

 reaches and fall a ready prey to the otter. One of the writers has located five 

 holts on the Avalanche, four of them on the right bank and one on the left. 

 Two of these are relatively close to each other, above half a mile above the cross- 

 ing leading to the Avalanche Bungalow. The other two are halfway between 

 the Avalanche Bungalow and Parry's hut and are well kno^vn to watcher Jogi. 

 Lower down the river, in the pool under the Khundah Falls, otters are extremely 

 plentiful and from here occasionally ascend as far as Parry's hut. Their holts 

 must be discovered and they must be destroyed unmercifully. 



Little has been done so far to locate the holts on the other rivers. But one 

 exists on the Krurmund, a mile or two above Hodgson's Hut, on the left bank 

 of the river two or three hundred yards above the waterfall. There is another 

 holt in the lower reaches of the river above Preston's monument. 



On the Mukerti River, there is a holt about 200 yards below the crossmg on 

 the right bank. Traces of otters have been seen in the Emerald VaUey stream 



