Trout Breeding. 67 



I once helped the proprietor, Mr. A. R. Fuller, take 

 eggs from fish which he netted there in about two feet 

 of water. Yet I have known trout to spawn about 

 spring-holes in a lake when there was a good inlet 

 stream. In such cases it is difficult to net the fish un- 

 less the water is shallow and the springs near the shore, 

 when a seine may be carefully put out around them 

 and hauled ; but great care must be used, for they will 

 rush for deep water at the slightest alarm. In all cases 

 there must be a pen or pool provided for such fish as 

 are not fully ripe. Out of ten spawners only one may 

 be fit for stripping on the day it is caught. 



In parts of Canada,' Vermont and the Adirondacks, 

 the trout begin to go to the spawning grounds in Au- 

 gust, and some will be ripe by the middle of September ; 

 in that case the spawning season is over in November. 

 On Long Island the spawning begins about November 

 I, and continues into February in some years, the 

 height of the season being in December. This is be- 

 cause the waters do not get cool early in the season, 

 and all fall and winter spawning fish develop their eggs 

 on a falling temperature; cold seems to stimulate the 

 development of their eggs as warmth does that of the 

 spring and summer spawnei^s. 



It is best to have everything in readiness a month be- 

 fore the spawning begins in order that those fish which 

 run up at first may not be alarmed at weirs or traps 

 placed in the water later. The males usually run up 

 first, and often are a fortnight ahead of the females, 

 and these males should not be caught or disturbed dur- 

 ing their search for mates. Mr. J. W. Titcomb, Fish 

 Commissioner of Vermont, recently read a paper be- 

 fore the American Fisheries Society on collecting the 

 spawn of wild trout, and I cannot do better than to 



