OWSIANKA. 
789 
ventral fins being only 11 — 13. In form and structure 
they show most resemblance to those of the common 
Bleak, being deeper than long (of broad elliptical shape, 
with longitudinal axis set across the body), with few 
and indistinct radiating grooves, and with the nucleus 
nearer to the anterior margin than to the posterior. 
In young specimens only feAv scales (3 — 4 or even none) 
are pierced by the lateral line as it descends in a curve 
from the temporal region, while in old specimens this 
number is generally between 7 and 13. 
The coloration too is mainly that of Alburnus. The 
dorsal side is olive green, more or less dark (brownish). 
The sides of the body are of a silvery lustre, with a 
steel-blue band, over which the silvery lustre extends, 
from the upper part of the gill-openings to the middle 
of the base of the caudal fin, towards which point it 
grows more distinct. The scales are dotted with brown, 
especially on the upper part of the sides in front. 
The fins are transparent and almost colourless, the 
dorsal and anal shading into grayish green, the pec- 
torals into grayish white, the ventrals and anal into 
faint yellow. 
The Owsianka, as we have mentioned, is one 
of Lilljeborg’s discoveries in the Scandinavian fauna. 
In 1871 his attention was directed by Mr. Aiilbom, late 
Collector in the Customs’ Department, to a “variety of 
Bleak” that inhabited a small, but deep pond with peaty 
bottom, in a field near Landskrona. The fish would 
occasionally seem to have vanished from the pool, but 
usually re-appeared in great numbers during the spring, 
in the month of May. Lilljeborg recognised this Bleak 
as Leucaspius ( Squalius ) delineatus, a form described 
first by Heckel; and since then it has been met with 
in many other peat-haggs in Southern Scania between 
Landskrona and Ystad. But in Sweden, as in its true 
habitat, the species has been found in running water, 
even before Lilljeborg’s discovery, though it was not 
correctly determined until then. Malm states in Gbgs, 
Boh. Fn. that in September, 1868 he found it in the 
Kjeflinge near the railway-station of < Irtofta, where 
it kept to shallow water near the grassy bank of the 
river; and according to Trybom it occurs both in 
broads along the course of the same stream and in Lake 
Vomb, the waters of which are discharged by this 
river, being so plentiful that it is often used as bait. 
In Denmark Fiedler and Feddersen have taken the 
species in small pools on the island of Zealand. 
In Germany, as Siebold has pointed out, the 
Owsianka has long been known under the names 
of MutterloseJcen (motherless), Moderliesken, etc. Its 
sudden appearance in peat-haggs and other small col- 
lections of water, which excited Ahlbom’s attention in 
Sweden, had given rise in Schonevelde’s time to the 
belief that it came into being without parents ( apliya ). 
In Germany too it has been found both in peat-haggs 
and small streams. Blasius met with numerous spe- 
cimens at Brunswick; Benecke states that it occurs in 
the Kurische Haff. The French Expedition to the Mo- 
rea found the species in Lake Za-raco, the famed Styin- 
phalian Lake of Greek mythology. It- seems to be most 
common, however, in Southern Russia, where it bears 
the name of owsianka , and according to Czerxay, is 
used as food, in spite of its small size, and considered 
fairly good eating. 
The Owsianka, like the great majority of our 
Cyprinoids, spawns in spring, the usual month in 
Sweden being May, in Germany April. It is a lively 
fish, in temperament resembling the Bleak, and also 
feeding on small insects. It dies soon after it is taken 
out of the water. Its apparently periodical disappear- 
ance from the peat-haggs — in Southern Russia too, 
according to Maslowsky, it is caught in the small 
streams only from September to April — may probably 
be explained either by some migration after the spawn- 
ing-season, should any egress be open to the fish, or 
on the assumption that at certain seasons it keeps to 
the bottom of the deep pools, appearing at the surface 
when the water is disturbed. In Sweden it is some- 
times fried and made into ‘fish-cake’ like other small 
fishes, but this is the only form in which it is eaten. 
