A PET TROUTERY 
were set to work to devise a plan. I had noticed the enormous 
quantities of caddis worms that fed on some neighbouring beds of 
watercress. Taking a hint from this I planted a long, narrow bed 
in the stream above the middle moat, leaving a small unplanted 
space along the side where the fish could freely travel up and 
down. This turned out a perfect success, and beyond often regal- 
ing them with worms to accustom them to my presence, I took 
no further trouble in the matter. There are those who suggest 
supplying other fish, such as minnows, as food for trout. This 
is of doubtful utility ; for would not the minnow consume much 
food which the trout would otherwise have eaten ? And sup- 
posing a thousand or two had been put into my moat, they would 
have been gobbled up at once. I did put in a few perch, and 
even these were attacked and eaten when small enough. One 
trout swam about for three days with a perch fixed in his jaws : 
but he got him down at last. Another way to feed fish is to stir 
up the bottom with a rake ; a good meal is often thus provided 
by destroying the lurking places of the insects in the mud. 
The bottom itself, too, becomes more wholesome by this treat- 
ment, and the oftener in reason it is employed the better. 
My trout used to spawn in the stream above the moat, and 
sometimes in the moat itself ; but it was a useless proceeding, for 
the hole they made in which to deposit their ova soon became 
filled up with mud, and I need hardly say that to the eggs of the 
Salmonidae a layer of mud is absolutely fatal. Many a time 
have I put my head into a laurel bush and watched the process 
of spawning carried on by a pair of 2 lb. fish in clear water 
six feet off. Coyness is as apparent in a female trout as in 
most creatures of her sex. Sometimes her mate would swim 
up to her side as she was preoccupied in clearing the hole, at 
the end of which the spawn is placed. She pretends he is in 
the way, and her objection is shown by the gentlest flap of her 
tail. Then he would retire to a respectful distance, only to 
come forward a moment or two afterwards, so as to pay due 
court to his spotted bride. I have at times collected some of the 
ova thus deposited in the stream, and have put them in boxes to 
hatch ; but it was a difficult matter, and the results were not 
worth the trouble. At last I set up a hatchery at one end of 
the moat, and spawned the fish myself. My apparatus consisted 
of several boxes which I filled with ova, a tub or two, with a 
tap to allow a small stream to trickle through the boxes con- 
tinuously, and under the taps two pots filled with sand as an 
improvised filter to stop the mud from getting into my boxes. 
The results, however, were not always satisfactory, for accidents 
of various kinds occurred ; but I learned a good deal, and my 
experiments were most interesting. I discovered so many 
enemies of the young fry, that it became a wonder to me that 
any, in my part of the world at all events, could possibly grow up 
into adult fish. The most terrible and insidious foes I had to 
deal with were leeches ; not the ordinary horse-leech, but a 
