556 EEPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Teiininiil ])ikIs, or taste-buds, outside the mouth are bewt developed 

 in bottom-iecding- forms and those which, like the carp, burrow into 

 the mud for their food. They pro])al)ly enal^le a carp to determine 

 the presence of food material in the mud without actually having to 

 take the mud into the mouth to test it. 



^Vhat part the sense of soieil pla3-s is not so well established, though 

 from the experiments that have been made on other fishes it would 

 appear to be of minor importance and to be of little value in a direct- 

 ive way in the finding of food. In many fishes, however, it appears 

 to ena!)le them to detect the pi'esence of food Vv'hen it is in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. 



The tactile sense is well developed. How far carp can detect slight 

 movements of the water, a faculty attributed ]>y Parker (1903) to the 

 lateral line, has not been determined. 



MIGRATIONS. ! 



The word migration is not used here in the strict sense of a reg"- 

 ular and stated movement from one place to another, such as occurs 

 in the salmon, shad, suckers, and many other species that ascend riv- 

 ers and streams to spawn. The only habit of the carp which can be 

 compared to this is their retreat to deeper water with cold weather 

 and their return to shallower water with the coming of spring. Their 

 movements at other seasons appear to be irregular and probably 

 depend upon local and variable conditions. In ponds and other small 

 bodies of water such migrations are necessarily limited, but may be 

 much more extended and noticeable in large bodies of water such as 

 the Great Lakes. 



Some attempt was made to study tliis ciuestion in Lake Erie and the 

 adjacent waters by liberating tagged fish and distributing a circular 

 among the fishermen and fish dealers of the region, asking for the 

 records of any of these fish that might be recaptured. A small copper 

 tag bearing a number was attached, usually to the strong spine of the 

 dorsal fin, by a piece of copper wire, though in a few cases the wire 

 was passed through the basal lobe of one of the pectoral fins. This 

 work was attempted only on a small scale at first, and later opportu- 

 nit}^ did not ofier for giving it a more efl^'ective trial. Moreover, the 

 method in which the carp are handled by the fishermen and in the 

 wholesale houses made it ver}^ unlikely that the small tags would be 

 noticed before the fish reached the retail dealers in far awav cities, 

 when it would be too late to get the desired dato, even if the tags 

 were returned. As it was, only about one hundred individuals were 

 tagged and liberated, mostly in the vicinity of Port Clinton and San- 

 dusk}^, and none of these v>as ever heard from again. As a conse- 

 quence, dir3ct observation and the results and testimony of the fisher- 

 men had to be relied upon for what information on this subject they 



