1 8 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE I 'IE W [ 2 . ,— January, ,906 



as a general thing, without much education, and have obtained all 

 their knowledge from the practical handling of the fish. 



The history of the gold-fish is lost in obscurity. Like so many 

 things in Japan, it seems to be an importation from China. There 

 is a record that about four hundred years ago — that is, about the year 

 1500 — some gold-fish were brought from China to Sakai, a town near 

 Osaka. The breed then brought in is said to be that now known as 

 the " wakin." There must also have been several later importations 

 and the Japanese must have improved vastly on the original forms, as 

 in so many other cases of things introduced from foreign countries. 

 Several varieties have thus resulted, but before proceeding to describe 

 these I may say a few words about gold-fish in general. A charac- 

 teristic of the gold-fish, no matter of what variety, is that the black 

 pigment with which the body is uniformly colored when first hatched 

 from the egg disappears in a year or so and gives place to bright 

 colors, which are of various shades between carmine and vermilion 

 red and which may be either spread all over the body or variegated 

 with white in various degrees. A fish that is entirely white fetches no 

 price in the market, and is mercilessly eliminated in the first year. 

 A fish with the white body variegated with red around the lips and on 

 the opercula and all the fins is considered to have the best coloration. 

 The dorsal fin is either single or absent. The tail may remain sim- 

 ple, as in ordinary fishes, but should best split open and spread out 

 horizontally, when it is therefore three-lobed, but quite as frequently 

 it may be split in the median lines, when it is four-lobed. • The anal 

 fin may also very often split open and become paired. 



There are five well-established varieties of the gold-fish in Japan, 

 and in addition one or two which have not become so common as yet. 

 [Here follows a description, with photographs of the varieties]. 



The gold-fish is very common in Japan, and more or less reared in 

 all parts, but the main centers of cultivation are Tokyo, Osaka, and 

 Koriyama (a small town near Nara, where almost every household 

 engages in this business). Each of these places has its own peculiar- 

 ities in the method of raising, but the differences are, on the whole, 

 in minor details only. In Tokyo, gold-fish breeders are all located in 

 low-lying parts of the city, where ponds, a sine qua non of this bus- 

 iness, can be easily made. 



The process of rearing gold-fish is in its main olitline as follows : 

 Large gold-fish that are three or four years old, with good forms and 

 healthy in every respect, are carefully selected for the purpose of 



