THE HABITS OF THE TROUT 



a classification which some anglers have been disposed 

 to doubt. These trout have become acclimated in the 

 Rangeleys, and, doubtless, their scions from generation 

 to generation and for thousands of years have trans- 

 mitted to those of the present day the constitutional 

 aptitude to adapt themselves to the higher temperature 

 of these lakes, where food is plenty and constant for- 

 aging for it not imperative, as it is in smaller mountain- 

 streams and other waters. 



On the approach of the spawning season, which 

 usually occurs in September, October, and November, 

 but is dependent upon the latitude and temperature of 

 the stream or pond, the trout makes its way upward 

 nearly to the sources of the clear, cold spring water 

 brooks, giving preference to those that flow rapidly 

 over gravelly bottoms. Here it selects a spot near the 

 bank and the female flops with the tail the sand from 

 her nest and uses her nose to push the gravel aside, 

 thus forming a slightly concave hollow, in which she 

 deposits her eggs, and the male emits the milt upon 

 them almost at the same time. The parent trouts 

 leave their nests immediately after the act of spawning 

 is completed, giving no parental care to either the ova 

 or their young, a trait so beautifully exhibited by the 

 black-bass, the sunfish, and the lowly "catty." In 

 about an average of eighty days, qualified by the tem- 

 perature of the water — 125 days in that of 37° F., and 

 fifty days in 50° F. — the young are hatched and the fry 

 thenceforth take care of themselves as best they may, 



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