SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
supplied with a continual How of fresh water. In 
summer, so long as the water is not too warm, Carp 
frequent shallow and sunny spots; in winter they flock 
together in deep pools. 
The adult Carp is sluggish and peaceable in dispo- 
sition, though frequently migratory in its habits, espe- 
cially during the spawning-season. It is highly sensitive 
to heat and cold: during the colder part of the year 
it abstains from food. Still it is very tenacious of life, 
and may be transported long distances alive. It may 
also be transferred from its native haunts to some ar- 
tificial receptacle, where it may be kept alive for a 
long time, and better seen to and fattened. This is an 
old custom, resorted to especially for the purpose of 
freeing Pond Carp from their muddy flavour. Packed 
in damp moss or ice, and with a bit of bread dipped in 
spirits in the mouth, the Carp can live at least twenty- 
four hours or more. The above-mentioned Mirror Carp 
from Sundbyholm was sent to the Royal Museum alive 
in a bucket, and was kept alive in a tub for some days. 
One morning it was found to have leapt out of the 
tub, and lay on its side apparently dead. It was re- 
stored to the water, but floated belly upwards and did 
not move a limb. It was then given a dessert-spoonful 
of spirits, and began after some minutes faintly to move 
its pectoral fins. After a quarter of an hour the dose 
was repeated, and within an hour the fish moved about 
with ease, as if nothing had happened. During the warm 
season, however, the Carp soon dies of suffocation, if 
prevented from coming up to the surface to breathe. 
Buckland tells® an amusing anecdote of its habit of 
breathing air. In an Irish lake fairies were seen danc- 
ing on the water during calm, moonlight nights — the 
fairies being large Carp that made rings at the surface 
by smacking their lips as they breathed. 
The food of the Carp is both animal and vegetable, 
consisting of seeds, fish-roe, and insects; but it never, 
or extremely seldom, bites at a fly. Its favourite 
nourishment is composed of decomposing vegetable 
substances, worms, Entomostraca, and the larvse of in- 
sects. The mud swallowed by it can hardly be included 
among its food, but seems necessary to its digestion 
and general health. 
The spawning-season occurs in May or June, but 
may sometimes be protracted till the month of August, 
being often interrupted during unfavourable weather. 
At this time the Carp is exceedingly restless and bold, 
darting wildly about, jumping out of the water, and 
leaping high, if necessary, to reach a suitable spawning 
place. Here the eggs, which are small (about 1 x / 2 mm. 
in diameter) and light yellow or yellowish green, are 
deposited in shallow water, and attach themselves in 
lumps to the water-plants, especially Utricularia, Nym- 
phcea , Alisma, and Glyceria b . The males — two or three 
to every female — swim at the surface above the fe- 
males, as far as the depth of the water permits. The 
number of the eggs varies according to the age and 
size of the females, but is also different in individuals 
of the same size. In a female 3 lbs. (lV 5 kgm.) in 
weight Bloch" counted 237,000 eggs, and in a female 
16V 2 lbs. (7 x / 2 kgm.) in weight, the ovaries of which 
weighed 5 x / 2 lbs. (2 x / 2 kgm.), Buckland d estimated the 
number of the eggs at 2,059,750; but another female, 
21 V 2 lbs. (9 3 4 * / 4 kgm.) in weight, contained only 1,310,750 
eggs. Sterile Carp are not uncommon, and have always 
been highly esteemed for their fat, delicate flesh. An 
English fisherman of the name of Tull discovered 6 7 a 
method of castrating Carp in order to fatten them with 
better success. 
In a suitable temperature the ova develop so 
rapidly that the eyes of the embryo appear on the fifth 
or sixth day, and the egg is hatched between the twelfth 
and sixteenth days, according to Day, or as early as 
the eighth day, according to Benecke. Of the growth 
of the fish Canestrini / tells us that at the age of one 
year it weighs 8 gm., at the age of two 32 gm., at 
the age of three 500 gm., at the age of four 1 kgm., 
at the age of five 2 — 4 kgm., at the age of six 4 — 5 
kgm., at the age of seven 7 — 8 kgm., and at the 
age of eight 9—10 kgm. These weights vary of 
course according to the abundance of food. The Carp 
may reach maturity in the third year. 
a Nat. Hist. Brit. Fish., p. 40. 
4 The seeds of Glyceria fluitans are also an agreeable food for the Carp. 
c L. o., p. 97. 
d L. c., p. 38. 
‘ See Watson, An Account of Mr. Samuel Tull’s Method of Castrating Fisk., Philos. Trans., vol. XLVIII, art. CVI, p. 
(Dec. 1754). 
7 Fauna D’ Italia, part. Ill, Pesci , p. 10. 
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