COMMON CARP. 187 



all wild fowl, viz. swans, geese, ducks, cranes, and 

 herons. It sometimes happens that crusians and 

 carp, or tench and carp, being put together in a 

 pond, and the males and females of each kind not 

 being in a just proportion, the different species 

 mix their roe and milt, and thus produce mules or 

 mongrel breeds. The mules between carp and 

 crusians* seldom and slowly attain the size which 

 carp are capable of: they are very deep, and 

 shorter in proportion than carp, but of a very hardy 

 nature. The mules between carp and tench par- 

 take of the nature of both fish ; grow to a good 

 size, but some part of their body is covered with 

 the small slimy scales of a tench, while some other 

 parts have the larger scales of a carp [ : their flesh 

 approaches nearer to that of a tench, and they are 

 likewise of a less tender nature than the common 

 carp : this latter kind of mule is called in Germany 

 Spiegel-Karpe, or mirror-carp, the blotches with 

 large scales being considered as mirrors. Whether 

 these mules are capable of continuing their species 

 I cannot affirm; never having made any experi- 

 ments on the subject ; nor have I heard any thing 

 said on that head with any degree of precision, or 

 founded on experience. In some ponds in Lanca- 

 shire, I have been told by a gentleman of great 

 worth and honour, both these kinds of mules are 



* Dr. Forster supposes the fish thus named to be the same 

 with the rnd or Jinscalc (Br. Zool. 3. p. 310). It is not very 

 common in England, and is generally esteemed much inferior to 

 the carp in flavour. 



f The fish here alluded to is the Rex Cypriwrum of Bloch. 



