FISH-BREEDING. 471 



they are still enclosed in the tissue of the organ which 

 produces them, and that the operation is premature. In this 

 case it should not be persisted in, but the female should be 

 put back into the pond, and allowed to remain there till her 

 full time is accomplished, care being taken that this will soon 

 occur ; for if a female fish in this condition is kept captive 

 for any length of time in a circumscribed place, her eggs will 

 spoil. 



"If the females are too large to be held and emptied of 

 their eggs by a single operator, another can aid him in hold- 

 ing them over the receptacle, either by passing his fingers 

 in their gills, or by securing them with a cord, and if the 

 convulsive struggles are very violent, it may be necessary for 

 a third person to hold the tail. The operator, then, with his 

 thumbs upon the thorax and his fingers upon the animal's 

 sides, presses from top to bottom the enormous mass of eggs 

 which distend the coats of the belly. The vertical position 

 in which the fish is held usually suffices to press out the eggs 

 nearest the opening, and the pressure of the hands, repeated 

 several times, will successively bring all the rest. 



" The easy expulsion of the eggs proves their maturity, for 

 it shows they are detached from the ovaries ; but it does not 

 prove absolutely their capability of being fecundated. For 

 there are some cases, the causes of which we have not ascer- 

 tained, where the female being in a stream and at liberty, and 

 having gone her full time, and her eggs being ready for 

 delivery, yet she does not or cannot free herself from them, 

 and being thus retained past their time they lose their 

 reproductive faculty. 



" Experienced persons easily recognise eggs of this sort by 

 two evident characteristics : one is the flowing out with them 

 of a foreign matter, of which there is no trace in their normal 

 state, which gives a muddy hue to the water when the eggs 



