THE CRUCIAN CARP IIt 
that the irides of fish change colour very rapidly after death, 
and become suffused with congested blood, disguising the 
original tint. This is very well known to the purveyors in 
Italian towns. If, in Naples, you have the enterprise to 
resist the attractions of the French restaurants in the modern 
quarter, and repair instead to a native establishment of repute 
in the Toledo (now named Via di Roma), the waiter will 
bring you a tray of various fish, uncooked, so that you may 
choose the one you fancy. Now it is a trick of those who 
wish to palm off stale fish upon their customers to pull out 
the eye and insert one from a fresh fish. Hence the knowing 
guest indicates the fish of his choice by touching it on the 
eye, and ascertaining that it is fixed in the socket. 
The crucian carp is no rival to the common carp in 
size, rarely exceeding six or seven inches in length; but, 
owing to its sturdy build, it sometimes weighs as much as 
14 lb. or nearly 2 1b. In habits and food it resembles the 
larger species, except that it is more fond of the bottom of 
the water than the top, and is never seen on the surface 
except about midsummer, when it spawns. At that season 
these fish leave the deep water and crowd into the weedy 
shallows, laying their abundant spawn on the leaves and 
stems of water plants. 
In Great Britain the crucian carp is said to occur only 
in the Thames and in ponds in the valley of that river—a 
ee restriction of range which suggests that it is an 
Distribution. . é : : 
imported species. On the continent of Europe it 
covers a very wide region, extending from Sicily to Norway, 
and eastward to the Danube and Siberia. It most countries 
it is used chiefly for fattening other fishes, but in certain 
parts of the north of Europe it is said to be accounted, if not 
a delicacy, at least not despicable as food. Frank Buckland, 
who sampled the edible qualities of most creatures that move 
in the waters, says that the flesh of Prussian carp, which 
Dr. Gunther accounts for as but an elongated variety of the 
