48 



THE GAME BREEDER 



turtle and there was an immediate com- 

 motion in the water that left the turtle 

 on its back a foot or more from the 

 nest. The turtle immediately disappeared 

 and the fish was soon settled over the 

 nest that it was guarding. 



The nests were visited the following 

 morning, but no observations of import- 

 ance were made. We caught three 

 snakes with which to perform experi- 

 ments by turning them loose near the 

 bass nests. However, we did not suc- 

 ceed in inducing the snakes to swim 

 near the bass as we desired. The snakes 

 would not perform as we hoped they 

 would. They were stubborn and 

 mulish, and always went in the wrong 

 direction. We have on other occa- 

 sions seen bass tackle snakes and dis- 



able or even swallow them. One 

 snake that was apparently too -large 

 to be swallowed was so disabled that it 

 could not swim except in irregular 

 curves. During the afternoon of the 

 same day these nests were destroyed by 

 parties who were seining for minnows, 

 and who were unaware of the presence 

 of the bass nests and of their value to a 

 student of fish culture. A minnow net 

 had been pulled over the beds, and the 

 following day there were no eggs in the 

 nests and no bass present guarding them, 

 which goes to show that if the nests are 

 disturbed by pulling a seine or net over 

 them the parent fish do not return, and 

 the eggs, if not destroyed or eaten by 

 small fish, would soon die of white 

 fungus disease. 



THE RAINBOW TROUT. 



By John Gill. 



Perhaps before this chapter is in 

 print there will be no Rainbow trout. 

 The debate of the question whether the 

 Rainbow and Steelhead trout are one 

 and the same has waxed warmer for 

 some years among learned men. The 

 greatest American ichthyologist. Dr. 

 David Starr Jordan, has during the past 

 twenty years held four opinions on this 

 question, and may even now haVe 

 changed his mind again. This readiness 

 to reconsider his views on the subject 

 indicates a broad and receptive attitude, 

 and it also indicates to the layman that 

 this question is a difficult and puzzling 

 subject. 



In one of his earlier descriptions Doc- 

 tor Jordan has written: "There are no 

 circumstances in which I have not been 

 able to distinguish the Rainbow from 

 the Steelhead." In a work by Doctor 

 Jordan and Charles F. Holder (1909) 

 the opinion is less positive, as follows: 

 "Very careful comparison of specimens 

 leaves no doubt that the two are dis- 

 tinct." 



Two years ago Doctor Jordan told the 

 writer of this article that he thought it 

 probable the two types sprang from a 



common parentage and might be one and 

 the same fish. The apparent difference 

 between a Steelhead recently from the 

 sea and a typical adult "Redside" or 

 Rainbow is surely greater than the dif- 

 ference between a Rainbow of a pound 

 weight and a Clark trout of that size; 

 yet we have no confusion of the two 

 latter. The greatest chance for doubt 

 is when the Steelhead, in the spawning 

 season, acquires a red side and enlarged 

 head and jaws. 



Let us leave out any consideration of 

 the fish least known to both scientist and 

 angler — Mason trout, which is believed 

 to inhabit only streams west of the Cas- 

 cade summits — and take into account the 

 type which most anglers know as Rain- 

 bow or Red side, found only in streams 

 of the Cascades and eastward, at least 

 in Oregon, Washington and northward. 



The first and most prominent distin- 

 guishing trait of a Rainbow adult fish, 

 of two years old and more, is the pe- 

 culiar red stripe along the side, follow- 

 ing pretty closely the median line from 

 the opercle to the tail. This mark in 

 the Rainbow is a narrow stripe, not half 

 an inch wide in fish of a pound weight. 



