366 CYPRINID.E. 



ten Roach and Dace were placed with plenty of water in a 

 large tub of three feet diameter. Five or six of these fish I 

 took from the tub one after another, and with a pair of scis- 

 sors cut off the whole of the dorsal fin close to the back, 

 returning each fish to the water. They were but little or 

 scarcely at all affected, and each fish appeared to preserve its 

 perpendicular position, or to ascend or descend in the water 

 with the same ease and certainty as before the privation ; the 

 mutilated, swimming among the unmutilated, seemed to 

 possess the same powers. I did not carry the experiment 

 beyond ascertaining this point, and in a few minutes the 

 fish were consigned to the Otter. 



When Gold-fish breed in ponds or tanks under favourable 

 circumstances, the young attain the length of five inches in 

 the first twelve months, but their growth afterwards is much 

 less rapid. I have not seen any specimen that exceeded 

 ten inches in length. The young are dark-coloured at first, 

 almost black, changing more or less rapidly according to 

 constitutional power. 



