204 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



and little fish measuring several inches in length, while they often eat holes into 

 larger fish. This large water beetle often leaves the water, perhaps for a little 

 exercise. Whether they fly during daylight I cannot say, but I have seen and 

 secured them near an electric light located within a short distance of a stream. 



We do not see and therefore do not know the full extent of the depredations 

 continually going on around us, but when we stop to realize the fruits of our labor 

 and patient expectation, we are astonished by the scarcity of fish and often inclined to 

 place the blame where it does not belong. Nature's checks upon over-production 

 are sometimes more effective than man's most ingenious devices for the legitimate 

 capture or legal destruction of fish, but at the present state of the fishing waters in 

 New York it is safe to say that we could get along without nature's checks. 



J. ANNIN, Jr., 



Superintendent of Hatcheries. 



A PIKE AT ITS BEST. 



