STOCKING. 133 



there is nothing that the keeper can do of much 

 avail towards assisting the work of natural 

 reproduction. It is perhaps of use for him to 

 keep some record of the numbers spawning in 

 successive seasons. It is, however, most mis- 

 leading for him to report that so many pair of 

 fish are spawning on a particular shallow. He 

 forgets or is ignorant of the fact that every 

 female fish on a spawning bed is attended by at 

 least two or three males, and in waters that are 

 heavily fished by as many as six or eight ; this 

 apparent anomaly is due to the fact that, in 

 heavily fished waters, the percentage of male 

 and female fish killed is not, as might be 

 supposed, equal, the females falling victims to 

 the fly being far more numerous than the 

 males. 



Another point, too, very often overlooked is 

 that a female, having once deposited her ova, 

 retires from the redd for the season, while a 

 male, having shot his milt, will in a few days 

 accumulate a fresh supply, and be available to 

 fertilise ova from later-spawning females. By 

 the system of counting, these males are thus 

 reckoned over and over again. Some approxi- 

 mate idea can be obtained by counting redds ; 

 but here again it must be remembered that a 

 number of female fish will spawn so close to- 

 gether as to make apparently a single redd, so 



