THE CARPS 99 
is the goldfish. It is quite possible for anyone who has 
a pond in his garden to get this fish to breed, and 
to watch for himself its early life history. In May 
and June search the leaves and stems of the plants in 
the pond for small, round greenish-yellow semi-trans- 
parent eggs, about the size of rape seed, gather the 
leaves to which these are attached, and place them in 
a floating cage in which you will be able to watch the 
young fish hatch and grow. The simplest way to make 
a floating cage is to take a large biscuit tin, cut openings 
in each of the four sides, leaving the bottom intact, and 
solder over these openings fine wire gauze, twenty strands 
to the inch. Then float this cage supported in a wooden 
frame, so that there is a couple of inches of it above the 
surface of the water. In this manner the young fish 
get their natural food as it comes through the fine gauze, 
and at the same time they are protected from their 
enemies. I have been able to rear several of the carps 
in this manner, and in one case only did this apparatus 
fail. In a floating cage were several young bream, and 
when these were examined after an interval of some 
time nearly all the young fish were killed, and the cage 
was swarming with water-boatmen. These had evidently 
got in through the gauze netting while they were quite 
small, or had been carried in as eggs, and had rapidly 
grown upon the sumptuous fare they found inside the 
cage. 
At six weeks old the primitive fin round the body 
of the goldfish disappears, and the various fins become 
