CYPRINID^ OR CARPS. 269 



fish approaches the term of existence it loses its bril- 

 liancy^ and having no Betty at hand to supply the defi- 

 ciencies of expiring nature by art, dies bleached in body, 

 and with achromatic cheeks. 



Those of its members who pass their lives in the per- 

 petual circumnavigation of a glass globe require a re- 

 newed ocean for the pastime in winter not less than once 

 a week, and oftener in summer, together with daily 

 ' provisions de bouche' for the voyage, of which insects, 

 worms, hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, and bread-crumbs, 

 form the chief store. In such situations they seldom 

 grow, or show much vivacity ; but in ponds, where their 

 natural victuals abound, and there is plenty of room to 

 stretch, specimens not unfrequently occur of from twelve 

 to fifteen inches long, and nothing can exceed the little 

 creatures' sportiveness, provided always the temperature 

 be as congenial to them as the site. We have frequently 

 watched the evolutions of a large shoal kept in the basin 

 of the scrubby park at Brussels (of which they form the 

 only ornament), the whole corps in close pursuit after 

 some delinquent member, whose tail first one and then 

 another seized on and bit with boneless gums, all ap- 

 parently equally eager to hunt him down, and secure 

 the brush. 



These fish have so delicate a perception of sound that 

 they are capable of being attracted like the common 

 carp to a particular spot by a whistle, or some other fa- 

 miliar sound. It is thus that the inhabitants of the 

 ' Kiang ' are said to summon them to dinner ; but as 

 they are known to turn faint, and sometimes even to die 

 in a thunder-storm when the peals are reiterated and 

 loud, what must their feelings be when each Chinese 

 proprietor (whose fish-pond is generally contiguous to 

 his dwelling) rends the air with the discordant banging of 

 gongs. To atone for this fracas occasioned by their mas- 

 ters, they are made the special pets of their Chinese mis- 



