280 Transactions.—Zoology. 
of day also when they appear to feed most, differs in some of our waters 
fished by me from all previous experience. Thus in the Lee and Deep 
Streams, every angler has remarked that they are more on the feed during 
the middle of the day, from spring to autumn, than either in the morning 
or evening ;* while in the Shag River and Leith they are found to 
feed when the water is low and clear, almost entirely at night. In the 
Shag River, there can be no doubt, this is owing to the fineness and 
transparency of the water. There, during the day, a few fish only are 
seen; but from dusk, all through the nigbt until dawn, they are more or 
less on the move, while at times the water seems alive with large fish, 
which throw themselves out of the water, tumble along the surface, or 
pursue the whitebait and minnows right into the shallows. Then is the 
time when the fish are nearly all caught, that being done by the use of 
natural or artificial minnows. A fresh in this river operates similarly to 
nightfall, and large takes have been often made on such an occasion. In the 
Leith good fishings have been got in the morning, but the best at night.t 
In all these streams of Otago the meteorological conditions of the 
atmosphere seem to have a marked effect on the movements of the 
trout. Thus, with a falling barometer and the approach of rain, particu- 
larly if the air is at the same time getting colder, I have noticed that the 
trout invariably cease feeding. It is only rarely I have caught trout, and 
never more than a solitary one, under these circumstances. Electricity 
also, when approaching in the form of thunder clouds or otherwise, has the 
same effect. But when the storm actually bursts over the stream, as a rule 
I have found the fish begin to take once more. I have seen the very same 
thing occur on Scotch waters. As a rule here, it is found far more trout are 
caught when an east wind blows than when it comes from any other 
direction; the temperature of this favourable wind has a good deal to do 
with this result. Although no experiments as yet have been made here to 
test the theory, yet I believe that, as regards temperature, trout will take 
surface food as long as the air is warmer than the water, and at times when 
colder, but only within certain limits. Not only do my own observations 
lead to this conclusion, but I may mention here a corroborative fact which 
came to my knowledge some years ago. Then being in Scotland, I had the 
good fortune to be permitted the perusal of a register of the temperature of 
the air and water at Loch Tay, which was shown me by a gentleman who 
had been residing there as factor to the Earl of Breadalbane, to whom the 
fishings belong. By comparing the readings of the thermometers for air 
* I have killed good fish in the morning on one or two occasions, but rarely any fish 
at all at night, and never large ones. 
t In British rivers, under ordinary weather, evening and night are the times when 
trout feed most, unless in spring, when this is confined to the middle of the day. 
