24 GOLDFISH VAEIETIES Al^D 



worlds, to which is added a touch of individuaHty of our own. Although 

 we have made several other combinations in crosses, the most important 

 is the beautiful Scaleless Fringetail. European aquarists have not as a 

 rule developed fancy goldfish breeding to the point it has been carried 

 in America. Their interests, particularly among the Germans, are cen- 

 tered in tropical fishes, in which specialty they easily lead the world. 

 In the Veiltail Telescope, the most important breed in this country, 

 American breeders have virtually created a new class, although none of 

 the separate points are of our own development. We have combined the 

 short body and long fins of the Japanese Fringetail with the Chinese 

 eyes, and colors. The broad, square tails seem to come from the Chinese 

 side, but so far as we know they did not especially breed for this point 

 nor for length in connection with it. 



It is believed that the first cultivated goldfishes came from Korea, 

 that country from which even ancient China borrowed ideas, education 

 and arts, but so little is known of this that we have to take our facts as 

 we now find them. That there have been and are breeds of goldfishes 

 in both China and Japan which have never been sent out is well attested 

 by travelers to-day and by a book published in Paris in 1780, by de Sau- 

 vigny. This remarkably illustrated work shows many of the varieties in 

 color. The only known copy in the United States is in the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, where it will be shown those interested. 

 The easiest characteristic to fix in a breed is the lengthening of the 

 body and fins. This brings us to a description of the first of the fancy 

 goldfish varieties or breeds. 



THE COMET GOLDFISH 



The Comet has been referred to as the Japanese Comet because it 

 is probably a "sport" from Japanese stock. Japanese experts have as- 

 sured us the breed is not recognized in their country and certainly no 

 considerable numbers of them have ever been imported from there. The 

 first of the long single-tail breed appears to have been originated in the 

 ponds of the Fish Commission in Washington in the early eighties. Mr. 

 Hugo Mullertt either secured some of this stock or later originated a 

 strain of his own. At any rate, he was the first to place them on the 

 market in quantity. The Comet is long of body and fins, the tail in par- 

 ticular being very free-flowing. In movement this fish is the most grace- 

 ful of all the fancy goldfishes and it can swim with great rapidity when 

 necessary. This activity has made it easy for the fish to revert to its 

 ancestral tendency to leap out of the water. Aquaria containing Comets 

 should be covered by a screen, particularly in spring. The Comet makes 

 the most beautiful and generally satisfactory pond goldfish where a dec- 



