Trout Carefully Selective 



claim that it would have to be to se- 

 lect the food it likes best. It must 

 not be forgotten that a trout from its 

 earliest infancy has but two principal 

 occupations — to exercise a constant 

 watchfulness lest it fall into the clutches 

 of its enemies and to secure its food en- 

 tirely unaided. From almost the time 

 it is hatched the Uttle trout fry has no 

 one to show it what to eat; it must 

 make its own selection of food. Must 

 it be an entomologist to be able to do 

 this.? Who that has passed many days 

 on the streams, and has performed 

 autopsies on the fish, can doubt that 

 at times, at least, the trout is most 

 carefully selective in its food.'* What 

 angler is there who has not seen in a 

 trout's stomach the black mass made 

 up of thousands of little gnats, all of 

 one species, and failed to find a sin- 

 gle specimen of another insect, though 



[173] 



