THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. ACT 
observations seem to agree with those of Hessel (op. cit.), who 
describes the process as follows: 
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. 
fotos} 
To this he adds: 
As this process is repeated several times, the female drops probably only from 400 
to 500 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. 
Among the earliest observations on the spawning habits of the carp 
are undoubtedly those mentioned by Walton (1901 ed., p. 116), which 
are interesting on account of their curious mixture of more or less 
accurate observations and quaint ideas. Walton says: 
J told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp lives but ten years: but 
Janus Dubravius has writ a book Of fish and fish-ponds in which he says, that Carps 
begin to spawn at the age of three years, and continue to do so till thirty: he says 
also, that in the time of their breeding, which is in summer, when the sun hath 
warmed both the earth and water, and so apted them also for generation, that then 
three or four male Carps will follow a female; and that then, she putting on a seem- 
ing coyness, they force her through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her eggs or 
spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds; and then they let fall their melt upon it, and 
so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish: and, as I told you, it is thought that 
‘the Carp does this several months in the year; and most believe, that most fish 
breed after this manner, except the Eel. And it has been observed, that when the 
spawner has weakened herself by doing that natural office, that two or three melters 
have helped her from off the weeds, by bearing her up on both sides, and guarding 
her into the deep. And you may note, that though this may seem a curiosity not 
worth observing, yet others have judged it worth their time and costs to make glass 
hives, and order them in such a manner as to see how bees have bred and made 
their honeycombs, and how they have obeyed their king, and governed their com- 
monwealth. But it is thought that all Carps are not bred by generation; but that 
some breed other ways, as some Pikes do. 
It may be of interest to give one other account of the spawning, 
though it adds nothing in the way of accurate details. Nicklas (1886, 
p. 548) quotes the following from Horak: 
The female fish, or spawners, accompanied by the male fish, or milters, move rap- 
idly along the edges of the pond, or near the calm surface of the water. The actual 
process of spawning generally takes place during the early part of the forenoon. I 
have taken careful observations of this process, and have invariably noticed that sey- 
eral milters always accompanied one female fish, and deposit their spawn, for not all 
females spawn, at the same time. Sometimes this accompanying degenerates into a 
regular chase which lasts until the act of propagation has been consummated. At 
the beginning of the spawning season the fish therefore gather in large shoals and 
move so close together as actually to touch each other. During warm, calm weather 
the spawning process is carried on at so lively a rate that the water is squirted 50 to 
85 cm. [20 to 34 inches] above the surface. 
In another place Nicklas (op. cit., p. 528) says that in the artificial 
propagation of carp the spawning ponds ‘must contain some stones, 
F. C. 1904—37 
