THE ETHICS OF THE DRY-FLY 73 



The larger chalk-stream trout is averse to taking 

 any great exertion to satisfy its appetite, because 

 Nature has provided an ample store of nutritious 

 food in the form of duns or dun nymphs, caddis or 

 caddis-flies, either in the winged, nymphal, larval or 

 pupal stages, as well as the crustaceans and mollusks, 

 which the feeding or hungry trout can secure by 

 merely rising to the surface, or opening its mouth 

 among the weeds. If it should prefer minnows or 

 other small fish, a few strokes of its powerful caudal 

 fin suffice to propel it at a pace sufficiently great to 

 catch the very fastest of them. Thus the fish of the 

 Test, Itchen, or other chalk-stream is not precipitate 

 in its movements, it raises itself slowly and sedately 

 so as to meet the natural insect floating down, and 

 the larger the fish the more deliberate is its pro- 

 cedure when feeding. 



In fact it may be laid down that one of the reasons 

 why so few trout, and these few certainly not the 

 monsters of the stream, are taken with sunk fly 

 worked downstream, is that it is swept too rapidly 

 across by the strength of the current to suit the 

 measured pace of the chalk-stream trout. 



It may also be admitted as an axiom that the 

 comparatively large size and aldermanic proportions 

 of the Hampshire trout are in a great measure due 

 to their habit of moving slowly when feeding, which 

 would be incompatible with their existence in a river 

 where the food supply was not most bountiful and 

 nutritious. 



