FisJi and Fishingr in America 



17 



when venturing' to fish for carp, meet 

 with the gold fish {Carasius aiiratus) 

 and find himself at a loss to distin- 

 guish it from the carp {Cyprinns carpio). 

 The illustrations of the two fish will 

 enable him to do this, and if he will 

 note that the gold fish is without bar- 

 bels, or "feelers," which are always 

 present in CypJ'inus, his assurance will 

 be complete. In addition to these 

 typical varietal forms, there are many 

 others inhabiting the waters of Europe 

 and Asia, which have interbred to so 

 great an extent that their classification 

 is somewhat confused. In this con- 

 nection it will sufifice to reprint what 

 Professor G. Brown Goode tells us 

 when treating upon the carps named 

 above in his most excellent work — 

 "American Fishes": 



"In addition to these somewhat in- 

 terchangeable varieties of the typical 

 carp, there are certain other local forms 

 which have been described as definite 

 species, such as the Danube carp C. 

 acuminatns, the lake carp, C. hiDiga- 

 ricus, abundant in the lakes of Plat- 

 ten and Neusiedler; an Italian form, 

 C. regina and C. norduianni, from 

 Southern Russia; another carp, C. 

 vulgaris, the Karausche of Germany, 



often called the Crucian carp or Ger- 

 man carp, is as protean in its forms 

 as Cyprinns carpio itself, and probably 

 found its way from the far East in 

 much the same manner; a large-headed 

 form, C. gibclio, is often called the 

 Prussian carp, and a specially dif- 

 ferentiated type, C. bnccphalns, lives 

 only in the warm springs of Macedonia. 

 The Gold carp, or gold fish, is believed 

 by some competent ichthyologists to be 

 simply a variety of the Karausche, and 

 when it escapes from domestication, 

 quickly reverts to its ancestral form 

 and color. The Karausche hybridizes 

 freely with the carp, and numerous 

 curious and perplexing forms have re- 

 sulted from such intermixing." 



The concluding sentence of Dr. 

 Goode's interesting notes should be a 

 caution mark to those ichthyologists 

 who are disposed to elaborate species. 

 We have been led to expect better 

 work from these fish savants who ap- 

 pear to discard hybridization entirely 

 as a factor in creating varietal forms. 

 It is refreshing and consoling to the 

 angler, however, to find, as he does, 

 that many of the leading ichthyologists 

 of the country have, of late years, in- 

 clined toward consolidation of species. 



(To be continued.) 





•^'>i'ii0iiii0it^jife«mvi^i-. 



The Dace. 



