78 



FISHES 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 vrhere 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, 1865, nearly the middle of May, I have a 

 rufi^, 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 j 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 



