34 THE SCIENTIFIC AKGLEK. 



Juliana Berner's book on angling, published in 1496, we 

 have the following mention of the carp: "It is a dayn- 

 tious fysshe, but there bene but faue in Englond, and 

 thereforce I wryte the lesse of hym." 



The carp is a vegetarian, feeding upon the more tender 

 parts of aquatic plants, and the growth of algaa and fun- 

 gus with which aquatic vegetation is often overspread. 

 Insects and larvae also are taken by them. Where carp 

 run large they are anything but "dayntious," as any 

 vegetable garbage and refuse will be eagerly and voraci- 

 ously devoured by them when cast within their reach. 



In the winter season carp lie partially buried in the 

 mud at the bottom of the lakes and ponds in which they 

 delight. Their ova becomes matured about June; they 

 deposit their spawn upon weeds, etc. These fish have 

 the curious habit of emitting but a small part of their 

 eggs at once; thus they are taken for some months con- 

 taining more or less mature spawn, the male fish having 

 a similar characteristic. The carp, like most leather- 

 mouthed fish, have teeth in the throat these, in the in- 

 stance of the common carp very much resemble the molar 

 teeth of a quadruped. They are very long-lived, and 

 many remarkable instances of this are recorded. There 

 are many varieties of these fish now common in this 

 country. The Crucian and Prussian variety are abun- 

 dant in many waters. These are much shorter and more 

 plate-like in form than the ordinary carp. 



TENCH* (Tinea vulgaris), like carp, flourish best in 

 weedy ponds or deep pits, and though in very sluggish 

 rivers they may take up their quarters upon some quiet 

 reach, they are seldom found abundant in these situa- 

 tions. In the winter months these fish lie dormant in 

 the mud at the bottom of the water, as we have already 



* So far as I am aware, we have no fish on this side of the Atlantic 

 corresponding to the tench, of which in fact but one species is known 

 to exist. 



