PROPAGATION OF FISH. 243 
and the spawning season lias arrived, the commiuiica- 
tion with the stew-pond is opened and the breeders 
let in. Thej do all their pairing, making their beds, 
spawning and milting of themselves without human 
help, and are allowed to remain till about the first of 
January, when the pond is isolated again and drawn off, 
so that they can be captured with a scap-net and 
returned to their former habitation. Care must be taken 
to handle them as little as possible, as handling rubs 
away their natural slime, and induces a sort of white 
fungus that will sometimes prove fatal. And you must 
give heed to your steps while netting the fish, lest you 
tread upon a S23awning bed, which can be recognized by 
its beino; free from mud and leaves. 
The fish, when they have determined the locality of 
their nest, clear away the sand and deposit the ova upon 
the clean pebbles, the male imj)regnating them at the 
same time. They will eat one another's spawn, and the 
male is ever on the watch to guard his wife from such 
an outrage. After the eggs have all been exuded, the 
parents fan the sand over, covering them entirely from 
sight. This is an important matter, which the artificial 
breeders omit, and the omission of which, doubtless, 
leads to the destruction of many eggs by fungus and 
sediment. In artificial breeding, I should strongly 
recommend that eggs covered with clean sand should 
be tested in comparison with those uncovered. A num- 
ber of the eggs, after having thus been deposited, were 
removed and exposed uncovered to the water : they died 
in a few days and turned white. 
The eggs when first exuded are a brilliant golden 
