CYPEINIDvE OK CABPS. 265 



females, some are neuters,* and some hermaphrodites. t 

 Renard further made the curious discovery that the milt, 

 besides the usual animal components of hydrogen, oxy- 

 gen, and azote, yielded phosphorus as well. The fe^ 

 males, as we have already seen, are wonderfully prolific, 

 and are soon in a condition to multiply, a three-year-ol d 

 fish producing seven hundred thousand new represen- 

 tatives of the race in the course of the year. J Carp is 

 a great lover of vegetables, and he must be a clever 

 angler who can beguile him with any other bait.§ Salad 

 leaves and salad seeds constitute his favourite fare, upon 

 which he fattens quicker than upon any other aliment. 

 Though able to sustain long fasts, a surfeit on this fa- 

 vourite diet sometimes proves fatal. Carp do not thrive 

 in an over-stocked pond ; like self-love, they will contrive 

 to live upon themselves for a long time, but unlike self- 

 love they do not grow the fatter for it. No fish is more 

 impressionable to electric agency, and they quail under 

 a magnet even at some inches' distance. So much in 

 regard to cyprian physiology : in regard to its pathology, 

 he is subject, imprimis, to a mossy efilorescence above, 



* Arist., Gesner. 'Amongst sterile flsli (imTpdyeioi lx6ves) 

 of tiie fresh-water are the barinus and cyprinus.' Such fish are 

 called hrehannes in French ; of which our English word ha/rren 

 sounds like a corruption. 



t Bloch. 



X The labours of Lucina may be facilitated by rubbing casto- 

 reum near the anal orifice, which seems to act hke the ergot of 

 rye similarly applied to quicken the deposition of eggs ia slowly 

 parturient hens. 



§ We read in a ' British Angler,' of fifty years ago, that ' an 

 expert fisher may angle dUigently from four to six hours every 

 day, for several days together, and not get a bite ; so that carp- 

 fishing requires great patience,' — ^and not a little foUy, might be 

 added as well. Such anglers show what they think of the value 

 of time ; and follow out the ' carpe diem' of the poet in their 

 own way. 



N 



