ENEMIES OF TROUT 
23 
needed to ensure the success of the project, and to prevent all the money and 
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ENEMIES OF TROUT. 
OME remarks in Nature Notes for August, by the 
reviewer of “ Amateur Fish Culture,” referring to an 
article of mine written two or three years ago, induce 
me to enlarge a little on what I said in “A Pet 
Troutery ” about the enemies of trout, especially in the early 
stages of their existence. 
It is generally the case when the foes of fish are described 
that those most in evidence are placed first and foremost ; and 
that condemnation is meted out to them in proportion to their 
size. 
I will, however, reverse the order, because I have learned to 
believe the rule to be this : that the trout's enemy is formidable in 
inverse proportion to that enemy's size. 
I have had great facilities for watching the ways and habits 
of trout, more so than can be obtained from living close to a 
stream. For nineteen years I possessed an ideal piece of water 
for making observations, that ran through my garden, and con- 
sisted of two moats connected by a small waterfall, above which 
was slowly running water forty yards long, separated by iron 
grating from the stream outside. The spring which fed the 
stream rose 200 yards off, and the water was so beautifully pure 
and clear, that when hidden by a laurel bush, I have often 
watched my trout spawning a few feet off, and have been enabled 
to see every action as if it were air and not water which sur- 
rounded them. I have at times taken their ova from the bed 
of the stream and reared it in boxes ; but it is a difficult matter 
and not worth the trouble to go this way to work. A consider- 
able number of ova l^pace Kingsley) appear to escape fertilisation 
when Nature keeps to its own methods ; whereas, by spawning 
the fish oneself the fertility of about 98 per cent, can be insured. 
The worst of all the foes that attacked my little trout were 
leeches. And of leeches there are many kinds, from the well- 
known horseleech, some two inches long, down to little black 
ones a third of an inch in length, which, when not extended, are 
like a blot of ink, and not much larger than the head of a good- 
sized pin. 
These little leeches, then, I will mention first, because they 
