REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXXIII 



varied waters, from deep cool lakes and rapid streams to the merest 

 puddles and ditches,* and to latitudes from St. Petersburg, Russia, to 



Italy-t 



Its diet is also varied ; unlike the great proportion of American food- 

 fishes it can be sustained on vegetable matter, being expecially fond of 

 water-cresses and similar succulent plants ; it also devours worms and 

 insect-larvae voraciously. Heckel speaks of its fondness for sheep-dung, 

 and of its becoming fat upon it. It has proved to be admirably well 

 adapted to the processes of artificial culture, and throughout Europe 

 the species has been kept in a semi-domesticated condition from time 

 immemorial in a very large number of hatching-ponds. It becomes 

 very tame after a time, and may be taught to eat from the hand, to 

 come to the side of the pond the culturist desires, and to follow him 

 along its edge. 



Heckel and Kner}: speaking of it, remark that its capability of rapid 

 propagation, its tough constitution, and excellent table qualities have 

 induced its abundant cultivation from a very early time. It is believed 

 to have been introduced into Europe from temperate Asia, and has spread 

 from the Danube over the whole of Middle and part of Southern Europe. 

 It is said to attain to au average of from five to ten pounds and even 

 more, according to the waters inhabited, while Dr. Rudolph Hessel states 

 that in Lower Hungary he had seen specimens weighing thirty and forty 

 pounds. The species is of rapid growth, and, under favorable circum- 

 stances, may be made to attain a weight of three or four pounds in three 

 years. § 



In its domesticated condition the carp has developed very many va- 

 rieties, some of which are improvements in quality over the original 

 type, while the contrary is true of others. These different forms falling 

 into their hands, naturalists have been led to name them as different 

 species, and later students in studying the carp in its numerous forms 



* In Couch's British Fishes a quotation is made from Sir Roger North, as follows : 



" Carp are sometimes fed, during the colder season, in a cellar. The fish is wrapped 

 up in a quantity of wet moss, laid on a piece of net, and then laid into a purse, but in 

 such manner, however, as to admit of the fish breathing; the net is then plunged into 

 water and hung to the ceiling of the cellar. The dipping must be first repeated every 

 three or four hours, but afterward it need be plunged into the water only once in sis 

 or seven hours. Bread soaked in milk is sometimes given him in small quantities; in 

 a short time the fish will bear more and grow fat by this treatment. Many have been 

 kept alive, breathing nothing but air, in this way several successive days." 



A History of the Fishes of the British Islands, by Jonathan Couch, F. L. S., vol. iv, 

 containing seventy-three colored plates, from drawings by the author. (London : 

 Groombridge & Sous, 5 Paternoster Row. 1845. Carp, p. 4.) 



t In winter they are said to bury themselves in the mud in large bodies, and to re- 

 main in a somewhat torpid condition and without food, but losing little or nothing in 

 flesh, until the following spring. 



t Die Susswasserfische der ostreichischen Monarchie mit Rucksickt auf die angriin- 

 genden Lander bearbeitet von Jakob Heckel * * uud Dr. Rudolph Kner * * * 

 Leipzig, Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, 1858, p. 57. 



§Aigner, quoted by Heckel and Kner. 



f— in 



