NATURE NOTES. 
1 66 
has gathered several little fragments of loose shreddy rubbish 
she picked up, and over the side of which she carefully deposits 
her egg. I saw its blue shell shattered on the bricks beneath, 
the day I left. 
L. C. James. 
TROUT FISHING. 
OT very long ago a friend of mine, who all his life has 
been an observer of nature and is my senior in years, 
to whom I had mentioned that I devoted a portion of 
my time each week to the reading of books on Natural 
History, remarked, in what might perhaps be considered a not 
very complimentary manner, “ Oh yes ! I have always looked on 
you as rather a book naturalist than a practical one,” to which I 
replied, “Well, as I have for nearly a quarter of a century been 
a trout fisherman I must perforce have some practical knowledge 
of nature.” 
I mention this little episode because some may ask what we 
have to do with trout fishing in the pages of Nature Notes. 
The answer is that although a naturalist is not necessarily a 
fisherman, a fisherman must be somewhat of a naturalist, and 
my object just now is not to try and teach people how to fish, 
but to endeavour to show in some measure how the practice of 
the angler’s art leads him to the study of nature. 
In the first place he must know something of meteorology ; 
and more particularly if he be in business and must take his 
holidays when he can get them, will he be anxious as to what 
the weather will be when he goes a-fishing. His success so 
much depends upon the weather : if anyone doubts this let him 
take a piece of silkworm gut and hold it above him so that he 
can see it against the sky, the same way that a fish will look at 
it ; on a fine day it will be much more visible than on a'cloudy 
one. The evening before the appointed day, as the sun sinks on 
the horizon, his eyes will glance towards the west, and if he 
finds the red lit glow with keen air, he will shrug his shoulders 
and say, “ Alas ! poor sport to-morrow ; ” or, on the contrary, if 
the indications are in favour of dull weather with west or 
southerly winds, he will be filled with hope. Again, the last 
thing before going to bed his eyes will be cast heavenwards 
trying to look into the morrow. 
When morning comes he will be early astir, the window 
thrown open and the signs of the weather again consulted. It 
may be that during the day sport will be interfered with by 
storms of rain, hail or snow, and as the fisherman gathers his 
waterproof around him and crouches beneath some boulder or 
shrub by the river side, with perhaps the frequent crash of 
