PROPAGATION OP FISH. 243 



and tlie spawning season lias arrived, tlie communica- 

 tion with the stew-pond is opened and the breeders 

 let in. They do all their pairing, making their beds, 

 spawning and milting of themselves without human 

 help, and are allowed to remain till about the first of 

 January, when the pond is isolated again and drawn off, 

 so that they can be captured with a scap-net and 

 returned to their former habitation. Care must be taken 

 to handle them as little as possible, as handling rubs 

 away their natural slime, and induces a sort of white 

 fungus that will sometimes prove fatal. And you must 

 give heed to your steps while netting the fish, lest you 

 tread upon a spawning bed, which can be recognized by 

 its being free from mud and leaves. 



The fish, when they have determined the locality of 

 their nest, clear away the sand and deposit the ova upon 

 the clean pebbles, the male impregnating them at the 

 same time. They will eat one another's spawn, and the 

 male is ever on the watch to guard his wife from such 

 an outrage. After the eggs have all been exuded, the 

 parents fan the sand over, covering them entirely from 

 sight. This is an important matter, which the artificial 

 breeders omit, and the omission of which, doubtless, 

 leads to the destruction of many eggs by fungus and 

 sediment. In artificial breeding, I should strongly 

 recommend that eggs covered with clean sand should 

 be tested in comparison with those uncovered. A num- 

 ber of the eggs, after having thus been deposited, were 

 removed and exposed uncovered to the water : they died 

 in a few days and turned white. 



The eggs when first exuded are a brilliant golden 



