276 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



that some species of fish hear better than others, or that in 

 some the sense of hearing is entirely undeveloped. 



Tench, as well as carp, are a favourite stew pond fish, and 

 the late Mr. Grantley Berkeley, who kept a number in a pond 

 leading out of the Avon, near Ringwood, commended them 

 highly for their edible, as well as for their eating qualities. I was 

 so unlucky as not to be able to accept Mr. Berkeley's invitation 

 to make a practical essay of one of these fatted tench at his 

 hospitable table. But swimming about in the water they looked 

 most majestic, much more golden-hued than the pond and river 

 tench I have usually seen, and I can well imagine that, as he 

 told me, when scientifically cooked they made a really excellent 

 addition to the cuisine. How kindly both carp and tench take 

 to their food when in confinement was noticed also by the late 

 Mr. Edward Jesse, who mentions of some carp and tench that 

 were kept by him, that ' they were soon reconciled to their situa- 

 tion, and ate boiled potatoes in considerable quantities ; and the 

 former seemed to have lost their original shyness, eating in my 

 presence without any scruple.' 



My experience agrees with Mr. Jesse's. I kept for more 

 than a year in a vivarium three sturdy little fellows that would 

 readily take anything I threw them, and almost out of my 

 fingers. One of them afforded a good example of the 'hard 

 dying' qualities of the species. He was 'killed' in the 

 usual manner, and consigned with others to the cook, in whose 

 care, however, after some hours, he began to show signs of 

 revival. A kind-hearted damsel compassionately transferred 

 him to the vivarium, where he afterwards throve, showing no 

 effects of his narrow escape save a scar on the back of the 

 head. 



The carp is still more remarkable than the tench for its 

 ' hard dying ' qualities as well as its power of sustaining life for 

 a, long time out of water. I have more than once taken a 

 basket of carp a considerable journey in the broiling heat of a 

 July or August day with no more moisture than could be ob- 

 tained from a damp cloth, and yet they have been alive, and 



