BROOK TROUT 



and is most abundant around the salmon-lakes and 

 shallow bays. 



Many of the observing guides of the Adirondacks 

 will tell you how they have seen a bald eagle attack a 

 fish-hawk in the air, and make him drop the fish he 

 had just captured from the lake below, and before the 

 fish could strike the water the eagle would swoop down 

 and catch it in his claws ; but the eagle is so very 

 scarce in New York that it hardly seems right to 

 recommend their destruction, even if the law would 

 permit it, which it does not. 



Barred Owl. 



Although this bird is commonly credited with the 

 destruction of fish-food, such as snails, caddis larvae, 

 and crayfish, it has sometimes been accused of catch- 

 ing fish. An instance of the capture of a large brook 

 trout at the State Hatchery at AUentown, Pa., by a 

 barred owl was reported several years ago, and Dr. 

 Warren was informed by residents of Florida, in 1885, 

 that the bird frequently caught fish in that State, se- 

 curing them by dexterous movement of the foot while 

 sitting close to the water's edge. 



The common hoot-owl, or screech-owl, quite often 

 causes trouble. I have caught them in traps set for 

 musk-rats four inches under water. They were after 

 the fish-food of the stream, such as caddis larvae, cray- 

 fish, shrimp, etc. I have seen two or three quarts of 

 the caddis-larvae cases in a pile that had been collected 



138 



