42 HOME FISHING AND HOME WATERS. 



liarity is that the malformed fry have a tendency tow- 

 ard a superabundance of heads rather than of tails. 

 I have never found a specimen with more than its 

 share of caudal appendage. 



Albinism is not unfrequent. The fish are perfect 

 albinos in every respect, even to the pink eyes. 

 These I have raised, and they are really beautiful lit- 

 tle creatures, and when placed in a glass jar, every 

 bone and fiber in their nearly transparent bodies, 

 fins and tails, can be plainly discerned. The great 

 trouble in keeping them in ponds is that they show 

 up so distinctly that they make an excellent target 

 for king-fishers and fish-hawks, which, in spite of all 

 our watchfulness, are almost sure to capture them 

 sooner or later. One of the albinos I kept until it 

 was three years old, when from some unknown cause 

 it died. It was a female fish, from which I took 

 three hundred spawn, a good percentage of which 

 hatched, but the young fry showed no peculiarities 

 different from other trout. 



CHAPTER XII. 



A LESSON IN FISH CULTURE. 



I AM almost daily in receipt of inquiries : "How 

 may I best obtain practical information on the culti- 

 vation of fish ?" First of all, I recommend reading, 

 so far as possible, good works on the subject. By so 

 doing, you will be saved many vexations and trials, 



