118 BRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
The first and great destruction takes place on the 
‘“redds.” Everywhere over these are tiny raised 
heaps of gravel, sheltering the spawn. But the 
shelter is insufficient to guard it from devouring 
enemies. These are in the air, on the land, 
in the water. Many members of the hungry 
Salmonide themselves prey on the spawn, and it 
is difficult to cope with them. Bunches of wild 
duck and teal seek out the “redds” in autumn, 
and feed on right through the night unless dis- 
turbed. Thither, too, as I have daily witnessed, 
the swan leads her cygnets; and it is known that 
one of these large birds will destroy nearly a 
gallon of ova ina day. ‘My swan and her crew” 
would have disposed of 2,400,000 eggs in that 
time. I know now of more than one northern 
trout-stream which has been totally depopulated 
of fish simply by the large number of water-fowl 
kept upon them. There are many fish that never 
spawn, and these, together with the growing 
yearlings, are always on the look-out for eggs 
over the reaches. Sometimes the parent itself 
will destroy the spawn. Secreted among the 
thick herbage of the river-bank, I have been at 
pains to find out which were the worst enemies 
of the Salmonzd@, and, to make these observations 
the more accurate, I have shot and afterwards 
carefully examined the creatures that haunt the 
