98 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 



but the whole town had suffered, and had more to think 

 about than the fish in their park. 



There is a common, but erroneous, impression that 

 carp feed on mud. This idea must have arisen from the 

 black, slimy contents found in the stomach and intes- 

 tines of this fish, in consequence of the food being 

 thoroughly ground into a pulp. 



In warm weather carp are to be seen basking on 

 the surface of the water. A cold day comes, and there 

 is not a sign of a fish. When standing by a pond on a 

 summer's evening one often hears sounds like deep- 

 toned slobbery kisses. These do not emanate from a 

 rustic swain and his wench, but are due to carp and 

 tench just breaking the surface of the water with their 

 leathery mouths as they gulp down air. 



To revert to the fertilised egg of the carp. In a 

 week or ten days' time the larval fish hatches, coming 

 out tail first. This carp larva is not at all like a fish, 

 and to the naked eye he appears as a fine dark line 

 about a quarter of an inch in length, with two black 

 dots at one end. This line is due to a row of numerous 

 dark colour cells running the whole length of the little 

 fish, the rest of him being too transparent to be seen. 

 The two dots at the end are his little eyes. As in other 

 larval fishes the primitive fin runs right round the body, 

 but the yolk sac is peculiar in being of an amber colour. 

 The minute structure of this larval carp is seen in the 

 micro -photograph shown opposite p. 102. 



One of the carp with which we are most familiar 



