on the spawning ground, which had on the average not less
than five hundred ova in each of their stomachs; from one of their
throats he squeezed a thousand. As the net would not take a fish
of less than two pounds, how many had passed through it? When he
was at Knowlmere, in sweeping the river for spawning fish he
caught nine Par, two Trouts, and a Sprod on the spawning bed, all
of which were gorged with Salmon spawn; when he went into the
brooks there he never found a pair of Trout spawning without also
finding a number of smaller fish behind, some of which he caught,
and in all such cases found them gorged with roe up to the throat;
the male Trout would occasionally drive them off, but as soon as
he returned to the female they were again close in the rear.

In the "Perthshire Courier" of the 22nd December is the following
statement: The men employed in taking the breeding fish secured a
Whitling on Tuesday about three-quarters of a pound, and as they
observed Salmon ova coming out of his mouth he was brought to the
office of Mr. Buist for examination; on being opened, upwards of
three hundred impregnated Salmon ova were taken from his stomach
quite undigested. It may be, therefore, fairly presumed, that this
youngster had taken this quantity for his breakfast; if he dined
and breakfasted in the same style each day during the breeding
season, it is difficult to estimate the expense of his keep. Such
is the amount of loss of impregnated roe in one morning from one
trifling fish; what must it be throughout the season from the
various enemies it has to encounter?

Salmo Salar is facetious about the destruction of the roe by
insects, and says, "because an aquatic insect will devour a
minnow's egg, which is not as large as a pin's head, we have no
right to infer that it will devour that of a Salmon, which is as
large as a pea; it would be just as reasonable to suppose that
because a wasp feasts upon a cherry, or a strawberry, therefore he
will eat a turnip or a mangold wurtzel." As he seems to have made
a slip of the pen in naming the two last _fruits_, allow me to
supply what I suppose he meant to say, which I presume was that
because a wasp eats a cherry or a strawberry, we must not
therefore infer that he will either eat a pear or a plum; if that
is his meaning, I think I can understand it. If he adheres to his
own version, I would merely observe that there is no analogy in
the two cases. But the inference does not re