84 THE SEA-TROUT 



trout have small opportunity of being over-fed. As a matter of fact in 

 such circumstances they remain undersized and are of the poorest 

 quality. This is a matter of great practical importance in the proper 

 maintenance of trout waters, and I shall have occasion to refer later to 

 other handicaps against the trout and in favour of the sea-trout. It is 

 my opinion that the cumulative effect of these is to reduce the value, as 

 trout fishing waters, of all waters to which sea-trout have access. From 

 another standpoint it is possibly a mistake to endeavour to encourage 

 trout in salmon and sea-trout waters. One might perhaps even go 

 further, and, having the history of the river Coquet more particularly 

 in view, argue that sea-trout are not fish to be whole-heartedly welcomed 

 in salmon rivers. In my introductory chapter I pointed out that the 

 broad theory of there being only one species of trout in these islands 

 would meet us at every turn in the life-history of the sea-trout. We 

 touched upon it in the case of the spots; we now come more closely 

 upon it. The question arises how far sea-trout may communicate their 

 pronounced migratory habit to the native non-migratory trout of any 

 stream. No one can really tell, but it seems to me that it is not an 

 unreasonable speculation to imagine that they do so to a greater or less 

 extent, and that, under special circumstances where, for instance, the 

 spawning grounds are limited in extent, all the trout of a stream may 

 become fish of pronounced migratory habit, while in other streams, the 

 bolder and stronger fish becoming migratory, the non-migratory 

 specimens left behind to people the stream — as, it may be said, "native" 

 trout — will be trout of poor quality. 



It is noticeable that the young fish of any brood of sea-trout keep 

 together and feed as a shoal, far more so than is the case with either 

 salmon or the non-migratory trout, and, indeed, my belief is that this 

 habit persists to a certain extent all through life so long as any 

 individuals of the shoal survive. It might be going too far to say that 

 the brood of each female forms an independent and distinctive shoal. 



