96 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



Although Carp are the most shy and difficult of capture 

 of any species with which we are acquainted, they are 

 one of the easiest to tame. They feed readily in stews, 

 and will come for their meals, according to some authors, 

 at the ringing of a bell certainly at the sound of their 

 keeper's voice. Mr. Bradley, who was a great observer of 

 the habits of fish, relates an instance of this : " At Rot- 

 terdam, in a garden belonging to M. Eden, I had the plea- 

 sure of seeing some Carps fed, which were kept in a moat 

 of considerable extent. The occasion of my seeing these 

 creatures was chiefly to satisfy me that they were capable 

 of hearing. The gentleman having filled his pocket with 

 spinach-seed, conducted me to the side of the moat. We 

 remained quiet for some time, the better to convince me 

 that the fish would not come till he called them. At 

 length he called in his usual way, and immediately the fish 

 gathered from all parts of the moat in such numbers that 

 there was hardly room for them to lie by one another." 

 The same sort of thing may be witnessed in the waters of 

 some public gardens near Rotterdam. In these ponds the 

 Carp are also in the habit of following visitors about, in ex- 

 pectation of food ; and one immense fellow, with a side as 

 broad as a flitch of bacon, and an appetite that seemed 

 insatiable, actually pursued me for nearly a hundred yards 

 along the side of the bank, until, my stock of bread being 

 exhausted, I was fain to try experiments with some paper 

 pellets, when he sailed off in magnificent disgust. This 

 fish must have weighed, I should think, at least 15 Ibs. 



