REPRODUCTION OF THE CARP. 623 



at that time. The spawning of tbe individual fish doea not take place all at once. Days 

 and weeks may pass U-iore it will have left the last egg to the care of nature. At times, upon the 

 setting in of rainy, cool weather during this period, it will be interrupted, but reassumed as soon 

 as the temperature grows warmer again. Culturists altogether dislike cold weather at this time, 

 as not only the eggs but the young fry also suffer much from it. Wet, cold summers are no more 

 profitable to the culturists of Carp than to the agriculturist. In the southern part of Europe the 

 -[awning season commences at an earlier date than in Central Europe. In Sicily, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Palermo, where there are some private ponds, the Carp begins to .spawn at the com- 

 mencement of the month of April. This is said to be the case also in the French province of Con- 

 st a mine, Algeria, Africa. 



The abundance of eggs in the Carp is very great, and it is this circumstance which will 

 explain its extraordinary increase in the natural waters. A fish weighing from four to five pounds 

 contains, on an average, 400,000 to 500,000 eggs. Other statements figure still higher. I not only 

 made calculations myself formerly, repeating them in 1876 on a female Mirror Carp, which I 

 obtained from the environs of Guuzenhausen, Bavaria, and which, curiously enough, at the end 

 of November, was entirely ripe, but I also obtained statements from culturists on whom I could 

 depend. The calculation I made in the following manner: After freeing the eggs from all the fat 

 and the inclosing membrane, ami after having washed them in alcohol, 1 counted off exactly 1,000 

 of them; these I weighed, and according to the result I deduced the number of the whole. In 

 the somewhat longer-bodied Scale Carp, 1 generally found comparatively more eggs than in a 

 Mirror or Leather Carp, though all were of equal age and weight. 



During the spawning season an appreciable change takes place iu the male, protuberances, 

 like warts, appearing on the skin of the head and back, and disappearing upon the expiration of 

 that period. This is a peculiarity with most of the cypriuoids. Some time before the spawning 

 season sets in, the falling out of the pharyngeal teeth takes place; these grow anew every year. 



Some days before spawning the fish show an increased vivacity; they rise more often from 

 the depths below to the surface. Two or three or more of the male fish keep near the female; the 

 latter swims more swiftly on a warm, sunny morning, keeping mostly close to the surface, followed 

 by the males. This is called "s<retcA"=runuiug-8pawning, and is more frequent in warm than 

 in windy and rainy weather. The female prefers spots which are overgrown with grasses and other 

 kinds of aquatic plants, such as Utricularia, Nymphea, and Aliama. The male fishes follow close 

 to the very water's edge, as far as the diminished depth will allow them. They lose all their timid- 

 ity and precaution, so that they may be taken quite easily. They lash the water in a lively way, 

 twisting the posterior portion of the body energetically, and shooting through the water near its 

 surface with short, tremulous movements of the fins. They do so in groups of two or three males 

 to one female fish, and forming an almost compact mass. This is the moment when the female 

 drops the eggs, which immediately are impregnated by the milter. As this process is repeated 

 several times, the female drops probably only from four hundred to five hundred eggs at a time, in 

 order to gain resting time, so that it will require days and weeks before it has given up the 

 last egg. 



The eggs of the Carp are adhesive, not detached, like those of the Salmonidte, these latter 

 lying loosely on the ground, while the former adhere in lumps to the object upon which they have 

 fallen. As soon as the egg has left the body of the fish it swells up a little, the mucus, which 

 surrounds it, serving as a means to fasten itself upon some aquatic plant, stone, or brush-wood. 

 Those eggs which have no such object to cling to are lost. I found numerous eggs on the reverse 

 sides of the leaves of the Nymphaeea and their stems, the Phellandrium and Utricularia, but the 



