Zoological Miscellany. « 149 



from the southwest. The birds tacked across the wind in a most 

 graceful manner. Some were so high they appeared as mere 

 specks, while others came within shooting distance of the ground. 

 When darkness came on they lit in the trees and on the ground, 

 where many of them seemed to remain during the night. At day- 

 light next morning a heavy rain fell, routing some of them from 

 their roosting places. One that had rested in a gutter near my 

 house was washed out by the rain and flew off in the direction in 

 which they had been flying. Two specimens examined were full 

 of grasshoppers. 



On August 19th, 1886, there was a large flight of these birds. 

 They came over every evening until the 23d. Specimens of that 

 flight examined were filled with insects. One bird's stomach con- 

 tained 320 insects, mostly winged ants. Fall birds of this species 

 are very fat and seem to find abundant food. 



Chas. Dury. 



AvoNDALE, September 12, i< 



European Carp. 

 [Cyprinus carpio.) 



As a result of planting these fish in our rivers and ponds sev- 

 eral years ago, some large and fine specimens are being taken. I 

 have heard of a number from the Ohio River. Mr. Geo. Rich- 

 ards writes me from Dunlap, near the Great Miami River, that he 

 captured a fine mirror carp {C}priniis carpio specularis) that weighed 

 8^ pounds, from that stream. He says it was the most powerful 

 and beautiful fish he ever saw. The hook was baited with a piece 

 of common mud catfish ; water fifteen feet deep and mud bottom. 

 I received a large mirror carp from Cleveland, taken in Lake Erie, 

 a result of stocking the water at that place. At Mr. Henry Muth's 

 extensive carp ponds, near Mt. Healthy, in this county, I captured 

 some vere large and fine fishes, three and four years old. At 

 times they greedily took a hook baited with worms or corn. They 

 can be reared, fed and fattened in a pond without running water, 

 and grow with astonishing rapidity. It is estimated that a female 

 carp weighing five pounds contains five hundred thousand eggs. At 

 an age of three and one-half years (under favorable condi- 

 tions) the carp will attain a weight of fourteen pounds. Mr. 

 Muth spawns his fish by putting branches of cedar and juniper into 



