THE BARBEL. 209 



The carp spawns in May and June, depositing its ova 

 among aquatic plants. Its breeding powers are very great. 

 As many as 700,000 eggs have been found in one female, 

 and that not of the largest size ; indeed, the name Carp is 

 derived from the Greek Kupris, Cyprus, where Venus was 

 first worshipped, and may have been given, as Dr. Day 

 says, to this fish in order to symbolise its extraordinary 

 fecundity. 



THE BARBEL. 



Gunther says : " No other genus of Cyprinoids is com- 

 posed of so many species as the genus of Barbels, about 

 two hundred being known from the tropical and temperate 

 parts of the Old World ; it is not represented in the New 

 World. We have only one species in Great Britain, viz., 

 the Barbel (Barbus vulgaris, Cyprinus barbus)" 



" The barbell/' says Gesner, " is so called from, or by 

 reason of, his beard, or wattles at his mouth, his mouth 

 being under his nose or chaps ; and he is one of the leather- 



THE BARBEL. 



mouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat. He loves to 

 live in very swift streams." 



The barbel is distinguished from the carp in having the 

 dorsal and anal fins short ; with a strong deviated bony 

 ray at the dorsal fin ; the mouth furnished with four 

 barbules, two near the point of the nose and one at the 

 angle of the mouth, on each side. 



Buckland, in his " Curiosities of Natural History," thus 

 writes of this fish : " The barbel has not a tooth in his 

 head ; his mouth is made for poking about among the 



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