316 



CYPEINID^. 



try, are extremely limited." The Chinese call their fish 

 with a whistle to receive their food.* 



A correspondent in Loudon"'s Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory, vol. iii. page 478, considers " that they were probably 

 introduced into Portugal at an early period, after the people 

 of that country had discovered the route to the East Indies 

 by the Cape of Good Hope, as they appear to be now 

 completely naturalised there, and abound in many of their 

 streams, whence they are brought to us by trading vessels 

 from Lisbon, St. Ubes, &c. in large earthen jars, and may 

 be had at a very easy rate before they get into other hands. 

 They have also been introduced and naturalised in the 

 Mauritius by the French, where they now abound in fish- 

 ponds and streams, and are served up at table as agreeable 

 food, with the other fresh-water fishes, to the brood of 

 which they are thought to be very inimical, by destroying 

 their spawn and young fry. The extreme elegance of the 

 form of the Golden Carp, the splendour of their scaly 

 covering, the ease and agility of their movements, and the 

 facility with which they are kept alive in very small vessels, 

 place them amongst the most pleasing and desirable of our 

 pets." 



" They even recommend themselves by another agreeable 

 quality — that of appearing to entertain an affection for each 

 other. A person who kept two together in a glass, gave one 

 of them away ; the other refused to eat, and showed evident 

 symptoms of unhappiness till his companion was restored to 

 him." — Jesse s Gleanings. 



This fish breeds freely in small ponds and even in tanks 

 in this country ; but particularly so if, by any means, the 



* I think it was Sir Joseph Banks who used to collect his fish by sounding a 

 bell, and Carew, the Cornish historian, brought his Grey Mullet together to be 

 fed by a noise made with two sticks, see page 202. 



