ARE TROUT CUNNING? 129 



came upon the scene. It weighed four 

 pounds and a half. Surely, therefore, it 

 was old enough to have learned wariness 

 by experience if trout are capable of such 

 learning at all. 



There are, as I have said, strong 

 reasons for suspecting that they do not 

 have this capacity. Incidents carrying 

 the same suggestion which comes irresist- 

 ibly from Mr. T 's performance are 



not uncommon. A trout often rises at 

 the very fly which a few seconds before 

 severely jagged him. Most of us know 

 that he will sometimes go on rising and 

 being jagged again and again, just as if he 

 were determined to be caught. Not all 

 the trout one meets behave in this way ; 

 but many of them do, and their conduct 

 casts doubt upon the belief that the fish 

 are taught by experience to shun artificial 

 flies. Not only do they seem to learn 

 nothing from their own mishaps : they 

 seem to learn nothing from one another. 

 Often when you are playing a trout, a 

 second seizes another of your flies. As 



