CYPRINID^. 161 



angler be out of Bight keeping quite quiet, while he must not strike at the first 

 symptom of a bite, but wait until the float begins to move away. 



Baits. — Many are in vogue, as a paste of bread crumbs, to which may be added 

 honey and gin. Blue-bottle flies, ripe cherries, green peas boiled in sugar, 

 grains, balls of green silk-weed so common in ponds, worms, green gentles, 

 grasshoppers, larvae, small red worms from dry earthy dunghills rolled into a ball. 



In the Cherwell, near Oxford, the common carp is far from being a shy fish, 

 and seems to have a peculiar afi'eotion for the red and white paste of the roach 

 fishermen (G. F. Field, Sept. 1882). Mr. Jardine (Field, Dec. 11th, 1880) records 

 the capture of a 9^ lb. carp, with a small artificial dace. A correspondent of the 

 same paper (Dec. 4th, 1880) remarks how using a large yellow Thurso salmon-fly 

 in order to try and take a pike in a pond, he caught a carp of 4 lb. and hooked 

 two others, the fly being only six inches below the surface. 



Breeding. — ^A carp is supposed to commence breeding at three years old, 

 returning yearly to the same spot, and during its migration it has been known to 

 spring several feet out of the water in order to overcome obstacles. Some are 

 either temporarily or permanently sterile. But, of those which breed, one of 9 lb. 

 had 600,000 eggs (Bloch) ; one of 16f lb. had 101,200 ova, another of 25^ lb. 

 203,109 ova (Harmer) ; one of 21^ lb. 1,310,750, another of 16i-lb. 2,059,760 

 eggs (Buckland). Hessel found a fish weighing from 4 to 51b. contains on an 

 average 400,000 to 500,000 eggs : in the somewhat larger-bodied scale-carp he 

 generally observed comparatively more eggs than in a mirror carp of the same 

 age and weight. It generally spawns about May or June, in accordance with the 

 nature of the season, and one female attended by two or more males may be 

 observed on warm days among the aquatic weeds where the adhesive eggs are 

 deposited. Some continue extruding ova for several weeks or even months, 

 interruptions occurring during cold or rainy weather, while others may retain it 

 occasioning disease. During the breeding season it is readily taken as it appears 

 to lose all fear. After spawning it returns to the water it usually resides in. 

 During the spawning season numerous wart-like protuberances appear upon the 

 skin of the head and back of the males, disappearing after the expiration of that 

 time ; while some little time prior to this period the pharyngeal teeth are shed 

 and which are yearly renewed. The eggs develop quickly should the weather be 

 propitious, the eyes showing themselves as early as the fifth or sixth day, and on 

 the twelfth or sixteenth day at the furthest, hatching commences in shallow and 

 warm ponds. After a certain number are in a pond they cease to increase ; perhaps 

 the parents devour their eggs or their ofispring. 



Hermaphrodites. — Jacket (Abh. ntr. Ges. ISTurnburg, 1867, iii, p. 245) describes 

 one and likewise (Fische Bayerns, p. 21) gives an account of some hyhrids, between 

 a variety -of the common carp (_Garpio macrolepidotus) and the crucian carp 

 (Garassius vulgaris), and which he terms Carpio Sieboldii, a form almost valueless 

 as food. Pennant mentions hybrids between the carp and tench, and having also 

 heard of some between the carp and the bream. Bloch observed that the carp 

 produced hybrids both with Garassius auratus and G. gibelio. 



Hessel observes that he placed a female common carp with a male crucian 

 carp, also a female crucian carp with a male common carp, and a female Gyprinus 

 koUarii (see page 159) with a male of the common carp. In the two first oases the 

 young became identical with G. kollarii, some approaching more towards one 

 parent, some towards the other ; while in the last experiment the product was 

 with difiiculty to be distinguished from the genuine carp. He fed these last for 

 three years in order to try their fitness for the table, but they were poor in taste, 

 very bony, and could not be compared by any means to the common carp. 



Life-history. — The carp attains to a good old age. Gesner refers to one of 

 a hundred years, and Buffon to another of one hundred and fifty. Buckland 

 observes that in Windsor Park the fishermen informed him that a carp in a 

 certain stew must be nearly one hundred years old ; how this was ascertained is 

 not recorded. In Germany and other countries where this fish is cultivated, 

 it is found that if May is mild and warm the greatest increase of growth 



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