REARING 163 



nets. This is generally a very chilly and laborious 

 task. Nor is it free from the element of uncertainty, 

 for the spawning period in a given locality lasts only 

 a short time, and unless you have been observing the 

 spawners closely you may be too early, or, worse still, 

 too late to accomplish your object, which is to catch 

 the gravid fish in the nick of time, viz. on the eve 

 of spawning. 



Having succeeded in this you will place the 

 mature females in one tub or bath and the mature 

 males in another. The sexes are easily distinguished 

 at this season ; but it is experience alone which will 

 teach you to recognise, at a glance, with unerring 

 certainty, which of the fish are forward enough. In 

 the female there is a fulness and a looseness which 

 is unmistakable, showing that the ripe eggs have, 

 to use Buckland's phrase, ' detached themselves from 

 the membrane, and lie quite loose in the cavity of 

 the abdomen.' I do not know that I can better 

 describe this than by quoting the words of the vete- 

 ran American fish-culturist Seth Green : ' The ripe 

 female, by an expert, can be told by the touch. 

 When in perfect condition, the belly of the fish feels 

 soft and flabby, and if she were held up by the head 

 her spawn would settle downwards, while with the 

 unripe female the spawn remains stationary in place 



M 2 



