176 MAKING A FISHERY. 



Do grayling . The majority of the Test trout at Houghton 



eat trout ova? J , 



spawn during November and December, and 

 the autopsy of many grayling killed during 

 many years in these months, the spawning 

 season of the trout, has failed to produce a 

 single specimen of a trout egg. That the gray- 

 ling congregate on the shallows where the trout 

 are spawning is an undoubted fact ; but do they 

 not congregate in these same places at other 

 times during the season? And is it not reason- 

 able to imagine that the stirring up of the 

 gravel at the bed of the river by the spawning 

 trout will set adrift a number of shrimps, caddis, 

 and other larvae on which grayling feed, and 

 would be present in considerable numbers ? 

 No one can say that a grayling would not 

 take an odd trout ovum if by accident it 

 came rolling down the stream with the other 

 more usual forms of food. The fact, however, 

 that autopsy has failed to disclose any of these 

 eggs is sufficient to demonstrate that the 

 presence of grayling on a shallow below spawn- 

 ing trout is not due to their desire for the eggs 

 as a staple form of food. Besides, have these 

 eminent authorities who make the assertion 

 with such persistence ever noticed how rapidly 

 ova sink in a stream, and how short a distance 

 they travel before adhering to the stones, and 

 being lost to sight ? 



