166 THE HATCHING OF FISH. 



water. Those used by Mr Smee, and exhibited at the 

 ' Field' Office, 346 Strand, London, may be made either 

 of zinc or earthenware, and are twenty inches long, 

 four and a half deep, and six wide. They can be placed 

 one above the other, like the steps of a stair, so that 

 the water shall fall from the one to the other by means of 

 lips. These boxes may contain either a series of glass 

 rods, on which the eggs can sit, which is a neat and 

 clean way of hatching them ; or may be filled with half- 

 inch gravel, boiled, in order to insure the destruction 

 of pernicious insects and animalculae. " By next Sep- 

 tember or October," says Mr Buckland, " I shall be 

 able to tell the reader where these may be procured, or, 

 anyhow, can give him a model." This is very obliging; 

 but, without 'availing ourselves of his offer, we can 

 readily supply ourselves with a cheap and effective 

 hatching apparatus, either for the parlour window or 

 the park. We only require to read any illustrated 

 work on pisciculture,* in order to understand what is 

 needed ; and with our own hands, or the help of a car- 

 penter, it may be readily constructed. 



Mr Buckland writes very pleasantly regarding the 

 enemies of fish while in the ova, or after being develop- 

 ed. The common house-rat finds the ova a bonne bouche; 

 ducks must be driven off if we want fish, and the stately 

 swan must be banished with them. Milbourne, the 

 water-bailiff on the Thames, near London, speaking of 

 swans, gives this graphic description of their doings : 

 " Lord bless you, sir ! they not only eat the spawn, 

 but they eat nearly all of it. The number of swans 

 already between Walton and Staines is beyond belief. 

 They swarm there ; and if they're to be allowed to 

 breed, we shall have such a mass of swans that the 

 river will be regularly smothered with them. Suppose 

 they don't know where nor how to find the spawn ? 

 Gammon ! Don't a donkey know where to look for 

 thistles, and don't I know where beefsteaks grow ? " 



* We recommend that of M. Jourdier, already referred to. 



