In the State Gardens.

In the Government gardens (a park of 180 acres), there is a fern-fringed pond in which trout and ducks compete for the visitors' daily offerings of bread. Sometimes the hunk of bread is too big for the trout to swallow straight off, but he does not abandon it to the duck bobbling at it alongside him. He gets a grip on a corner of it, and swims away to a place where he can deal with it when it is thoroughly soaked. As a rule, the fish is quicker on the grab in the water than the duck, but the latter has the advantage of a longer reach in the air. So you see a chunk of bread won by a neck from the trout, who jostles up, mouth open, against his feathered rival. Luckily there are no eels in the ponds, otherwise the duckling mortality would be great. A good many loaves of bread must be divided between the Government fish and waterfowl in the course of a week.

Out at the Fairy Springs, too, the rainbow trout that crowd the crystal waters, are smart in the bread - snatching art. They sometimes form a sort of queue there. Trout number one glides up to the spring side, jumps at just the right moment, and gets his crumb from the pleased tourist. With a wriggle he puts his helm hard over and makes way for number two, and so on. The stranger to Rotorua soon discovers that it is well to be quick on the withdraw when trout are feeding. An Australian girl who held her contribution too long and too close to the trout jaws, emitted an amazed squeal. The fish had nipped her fingers.