54 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 
fry, and on this nourishing diet they soon grow fat 
and strong. 
As a rule, fry dart here, there and everywhere in 
search of food, but occasionally several of them will 
band together and systematically hunt corize (water 
beetles not unlike water-boatmen, but smaller in size). 
The coriza, though small, is a valiant fighter, but as 
soon as the young fish succeed in nipping off one of 
his oars, he is at once disabled and at their mercy. 
Then falling on him like a pack of hounds, they tear 
him limb from limb. 
These foraging excursions soon add to the size and 
strength of the alevins, but they also materially add to 
their chances of destruction. At every corner a hungry 
trout or some other fish is ready to snap them up, the 
gaily painted kingfisher is on the look out for them by 
day, and at night they have to avoid one of their worst 
enemies, the eel. 
With the autumn, the adult mature trout again 
comes up into the shallow water to spawn, and now the 
fry have a lively time in picking up stray eggs, and in 
avoiding the attentions of the hungry fish after they 
have spawned. By the following spring the fry have 
grown from three to seven inches in length, according 
to the abundance of their food supply, and are known 
as “yearlings.” During the summer these yearlings 
drop down into deeper waters, adding considerably to 
the variety of their food, and to their already long list 
of enemies. 
