i So THE TROUT 



for your patient care by finding in the trays ' something 

 new and strange.' 



What happens at the exciting moment of hatching 

 has been described by Frank Buckland. ' If you 

 have luck,' he says, ' you may happen to be gazing on 

 a particular egg, when on a sudden you will see it 

 split in twain at the part corresponding to the back 

 of the fish ; you will then see a tiny head, with black 

 eyes, and a long tail pop out, and you will see the 

 new-born creature give several convulsive shudders 

 in his attempts to quit himself of the now useless 

 egg-shell.' 



With large, strong eggs, properly incubated, there 

 should be little loss in the actual hatching ; but if 

 the embryos are puny, many of them will not have 

 strength to disengage themselves from the egg-case, 

 and a heavy bill of mortality will result. 



Instead of laying fully eyed ova in hatching-boxes, 

 they can be sown in an artificial ova bed formed in a 

 stream connected with the water which you desire to 

 stock. The stream should be kept completely under 

 control, and the supply of water regulated by a sluice. 

 The bed of the trench is of sifted gravel, and in this 

 gravel the eyed eggs are planted just before they are 

 expected to hatch out. Of course the bed must be 

 screened from the sun's rays, and most carefully pro- 



