868 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the professed culturist and experieuced fisherman to immediately recog- 

 nize them. Such fishes are valueless as food, on account of their bad 

 and very bony flesh. One of the hybrids mentioned is the Carpio 

 kollarii — Cyprmus striatus, which was formerly regarded as a separate 

 species. It is a cross between the carp and Carassius vulgaris, (crucian 

 carp), a very poor and bony fish, which, in Germany, is sometimes called 

 *' poor man's carp." Some varieties exist of this common fish. The 

 latter has even been dignified by a specific name of its own, Carassius 

 gibelio. 



The spawning seasons of the crucian and the true carp coincide, and, 

 where kept together, hybrid races may readily be formed ; that period 

 including the time from the month of May until August. 



In order to determine this question, I myself managed to bring about 

 such crosses by placing (1) female common carp with male crucian carp, 

 and (2) female crucian carp with male common carp, in small tanks, 

 constructed with this end in view ; (3) I also put together female Car- 

 pio Jcollarii with male common carp ; this for the sole purpose of testing 

 the capability of propagation of the C. kollarii, which had been doubted. 

 In the two former cases I obtained forms analogous to the Carpio Tcollarii 

 sometimes approaching in appearance the true carp, at others the cru- 

 cian carp. In the third case, however, having placed ripe Carpio kollarii 

 together with Cyprinus carpio, I obtained a product with difficulty to be 

 distinguished from the genuine carp. I took the trouble to feed them 

 for three years, in order to try their fitness for the table, but their flesh 

 was exceedingly poor and very bony and could not be compared by any 

 means to that of the common carp. 



Considering, then, the whole extensive tract of country devoted to 

 fish-culture in Central Europe, where crucian carp are to be found from 

 Italy to Sweden and Norway, from France to the boundary of Eastern 

 Siberia, considering the many who cultivate on a small scale and the 

 owners of badly-stocked ponds, with their different doubtful produc- 

 tions, how often do we find in the markets or ponds very nice crosses 

 which have been propagated through from three to ten generations and 

 which are sold for carp ! There are many small sheets of water in Ger- 

 many, France, Austria, Italy, Holland, and Belgium, and probably also 

 in England, the proprietors of which imagine, in good faith, that they 

 have stocked their ponds with good, genuine carp, which, in reality, 

 through careless selection or ignorance, are hybrids which may even have 

 been cultivated for two or three generations. In some ponds in Switzer- 

 land, near the lake of Constance, some crosses of Ahramis hrama were 

 found as late as twenty years ago. 



2. — The habits and the mode of reproduction. 



The carp is partial to stagnant waters, or such as have a not too 

 swift current, with a loamy, muddy bottom and deep places covered with 

 vegetation. It inhabits now most of the larger and smaller rivers of 

 Europe, particularly the Elbe, Weser, Rhine, Danube, Fo, Bhone, Ga»? 



