240 PROPAGATION OF FISH. 



sides, and our aquarium was nearly depopulated, till at 

 last he swallowed one of his brother tadpoles, and our 

 sense of justice constrained us to banish him to the 

 country. 



The reason that the frogs collected round the breed- 

 ing-pond was now perfectly apparent, and doubtless 

 hundreds of fish paid for their presence. Give the 

 fry something saifer than frog spawn ; they obtain 

 so much from the water they need little extraneous 

 food. The first thing, however, is to get the young trout 

 to feed. 



It may be well to remark that salmon and trout are 

 the most difllcult of all fish to breed ; they require more 

 care, and have to be watched closely in consequence of 

 certain unfortunate h^its. For instance, they will eat 

 one another ; a trout of twelve inches will dispose of one 

 of six and think nothing of it, and this no matter how 

 well he is fed. Perhaps he has been offended, but 

 it rather seems to me an experiment to see how 

 capacious his swallow is. When large and small 

 are together, the latter, being the most active, are 

 invariably first to seize the bait or food ; no man ever 

 caught at the first cast the largest trout out of a shoal. 

 While the smaller ones are busy with the food, the larger 

 seize them, sometimes even by mistake, I fancy, in 

 making a rush at the same morsel, and if they are caught 

 by the gills, good bye to them. After a struggle, they 

 get ended round, and down they go head foremost, their 

 tails often waving out of the destroyer's mouth for hours, 

 a sad memento of their untimely fate. Fish of one year 

 will devour those of the next, and a friend of mine lost 



