THE FRY STAGE 85 



but I think that the young fish which have hatched out together in 

 neighbouring redds in the one Httle spawning tributary tend to remain 

 together. I would wish to make my meaning perfectly clear in regard 

 to this matter. I do not of course pretend that the sea-trout fry are 

 gregarious, as a shoal of minnows which cruises up and down the still 

 waters of a pool is gregarious, each individual minnow conforming in 

 its movements to the general movements of the shoal. All I suggest 

 is that the sea-trout fry hatched out in any stretch of shingle remain 

 together in that stretch of shingle, until the necessity of seeking other 

 quarters where richer feeding may be obtained arises. When the 

 necessity arises I am inclined to think that all the fish hatched out 

 together seek the richer feeding grounds in a body, dropping down 

 stream to the main river, or to a loch, if such is within immediate reach. 



The Loch Lomond district, with its numberless little streams, many 

 of which have perhaps no more than a dozen yards or so of spawning 

 ground, offers peculiar opportunity for observation. Where one of 

 these streams is so small as to be obviously incapable of providing food 

 for the growing fry in it, these are known to desert the stream and seek 

 sustenance in the loch where the shoal can be seen on a calm day 

 cruising along the shore. I believe, further, that sooner or later shoals 

 of these young fish even cross deep water to the feeding banks of the 

 numerous islands where these are near the parent stream. The shoals 

 which thus take up their feeding ground spread over the banks as the 

 growth of each young fish demands for it a wider range. 



But doubtless every district has its own type of feeding ground, in 

 river, loch or even brackish water, and such fry as are not driven by 

 force of bare necessity to seek a livelihood elsewhere scatter themselves 

 over the shallows in the neighbourhood of the redds in which they were 

 spawned, redds which are almost always in some inconsiderable 

 tributary of a greater stream. Here they spend an active existence in 

 summer in pursuit of food and in evading their natural enemies. By 



