WATER POACHERS. 119g 
waterways of salmon and trout. In this way I 
have again and again taken ducks, coots, and 
moorhens, with the spawn dropping from their 
mouths and themselves glutted with it. Grebes 
feed upon it, as do some of the coarse fish. In 
mountainous countries the constantly-recurring 
spates and freshets often destroy the eggs by cover- 
ing them with sand and silt. Sometimes they 
are washed clean away; and when they get 
strewn about the bed of the stream, there is 
but little chance of surviving the attack of the 
numerous water-beetles. These, too, make havoc 
on the ‘“‘redds,” and as their numbers and 
voracity are great, they are to be included in 
the reckoning. Among them are the larve of 
the trout-loved May- and stone-flies, which on 
nearly all streams prove so killing during the 
early summer months, But, even at this stage, 
probably the greatest enemy to salmon and trout 
is pollution. The havoc committed by wild 
creatures is as nothing to this. 
The moment the tiny fish emerge from the 
egg they are exposed to fresh perils. Both 
salmon and trout consider the smaller fry of their 
own kind quite legitimate food. Pike and nu- 
merous coarse fish are partial to the same repast ; 
but the pretty water-shrew, often said to have the 
same enchant, is wholly innocent. Often and 
