COMMON CARP. 309 



— " Mr. Ladbroke, from his park at Gatton, presented 

 Lord Egremont with a brace that weighed thirty-five pounds, 

 as specimens to ascertain whether the Surrey could not vie 

 with the Sussex Carp." In 179S, at the fishing of the large 

 piece of water at Stourhead, where a thousand brace of 

 killing Carp were taken, the largest was thirty inches long, 

 upwards of twenty-two broad, and weighed eighteen pounds. 



At Weston Hall, Staffordshire, the seat of the Earl 

 of Bradford, the painting of a Carp is preserved which 

 weighed nineteen and a half pounds. This fish was caught 

 in a lake of twenty-six acres, called the White Sitch, the 

 largest of three pieces of water which ornament this fine 

 estate. 



Carp are difficult to take by angling, or rather very un- 

 certain, — ^great success one day, and little or none another, 

 happening to the same angler at the same water. Carp 

 manage equally to avoid a net, burying themselves in the 

 mud, and allowing a heavily-loaded ground-line to pass over 

 them without their moving ; but if disturbed from their 

 hiding-places, frequently endeavouring, like the Grey Mul- 

 let, to escape over the corked head-line. Carp are in season 

 for the table from October to April, and are greatly indebted 

 to cooks for the estimation in which they are held. 



The mouth is small ; no apparent teeth ; a barbule or 

 cirrus at the upper part of each corner of the mouth, with a 

 second smaller one above it on each side ; the nostrils large, 

 pierced at the second third of the distance between the 

 lip and the eye ; the eye small ; operculum marked with 

 striae radiating from the anterior edge ; nape and back rising 

 suddenly. The fin-rays are — 



D. 22 : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 8, : C. 19. Vertebra 36. 



First dorsal fin-ray short and bony ; the second also 



