78 ITSHES AND FISHING. 



a portion of vivifying milt upon them, and this would 

 so continually occur, as to give a reason for the great 

 numbers of these fish in rivers where perch and 

 gudgeon abound, if even hybrids have no powers of 

 procreation. It is said by Dr* Brookes, who wrote 

 above a hundred years ago, that the ruff spawns in 

 April : much depends upon the state of the weather* 

 This year, 1855, nearly the middle of May, I have a 

 ruff, or pope, full of ova ; there is, in my opinion, every 

 reason to think this fish is a hybrid, and here is 

 ample proof that it is capable of producing its own 

 species, which, from the quantity of ova in the speci 

 men now before me, must be very numerous. Birds 

 produce hybrids, and those hybrids produce progeny. 

 At Syfran, on the rivers Krymsa and Syfranka, they 

 breed the Astrachan swan goose ; the bird intermixes 

 with the common goose, and its progeny will couple 

 with each other. The pure bastards partake of the 

 nature of the swan-goose, and the common goose as 

 to size, shape, and colour ; and mixing further with 

 common geese, the young are of a blackish hue, their 

 bills are red and bent, and have sometimes a little 

 protuberance at the upper end. Vide " Travels into 

 Siberia and Tartary," by Dr. Pallas. 



There can be little, if any, doubt, that hybrids 

 amongst fish are very common, and that these hybrids 

 breed. In the Serpentine and other large pieces of 



