COMMON CARP. 187 



nil wild fowl, viz. swans, geese, ducks, cranes, and 

 herons. It sometimes happens that crusians and 

 carp, or tench and carp, being put together in a 

 pond, and the males and females of each kind not 

 being in a just proportion, the different species 

 mix their roe and milt, and thus produce mules or 

 mongrel breeds. The mules between carp and 

 crusians* seldom and slowly attain the size which 

 carp are capable of: they are very deep, and 

 shorter in proportion than carp, but of a very hardy 

 nature. The mules between carp and tench par- 

 take of the nature of both fish ; grow to a good 

 size, but some part of their body is covered with 

 the small slimy scales of a tench, while some other 

 parts have the larger scales of a carp -f : their flesh 

 approaches nearer to that of a tench, and they are 

 likewise of a less tender nature than the common 

 carp : this latter kind of mule is called in Germany 

 Spiegel-Karpe, or mirror-carp, the blotches with 

 large scales being considered as mirrors. Whether 

 these mules are capable of continuing their species 

 I cannot affirm; never having made any experi- 

 ments on the subject ; nor have I heard any thing 

 said on that head with any degree of precision, or 

 founded on experience. In some ponds in Lanca- 

 shire, I have been told by a gentleman of great 

 worth and honour, both these kinds of mules are 



* Dr. Forster supposes the fish thus named to be the sam® 

 with the md or Jinscale (Br. Zool. 3. p. 310). It is not veiy 

 common in Englandj and is generally esteemed much inferior to 

 the carp in flavour. 



f The fish here alluded to is the Rex Cyprinorum of Bloch^ 



