Pishes. 38d 



confinement. It is, however, more probable that these 

 colors have been intensified through artificial selection, as 

 this species lias been carefully bred in China from a remote 

 period.* Under natural conditions it does not seem prob- 

 able that beings so highly organized as fishes, and which 

 live under such complex relations, should become brilliantly 

 colored without suffering some evil or receiving some bene- 

 fit from so great a change, and consequently without the 

 intervention of natural selection. 



What, then, are we to conclude in regard to the many 

 fishes, both sexes of which are splendidly colored? Mr. 

 Wallace f believes that the species which frequent reefs, 

 where corals and other brightly-colored organisms abound, 

 are brightly colored in order to escape detection by their 

 enemies; but according to my recollection they were thus 

 rendered highly conspicuous. In the fresh waters of the 

 tropics there are no brilliantly-colored corals or other 

 organisms for the fishes to resemble; yet many Species in 

 the Amazons are beautifully colored, and many of the car- 

 nivorous Cyprinidae in India are ornamented with '^bright 

 longitudinal lines of various tints."' J; Mr. McClelland, in 

 describing these fishes, goes so far as to suppose that '^ the 

 peculiar brilliancy of their colors ^^ serves as ^' a better 

 mark for king-fishers, terns, and other birds which are 

 destined to keep the number of these fishes in check;" but 

 at the present day few naturalists will admit that any 

 animal has been made conspicuous as an aid to its own 

 destruction. It is possible that certain fishes may have 

 been rendered conspicuous in order to warn birds and beasts 

 of prey that they were unpalatable, as explained when 

 treating of caterpillars; but it is not, I believe, known that 



* Owing to some remarks on this subject made in my work " On 

 the Variation of Animals under Domestication," Mr. W. F. Mayers 

 ("Chinese Notes and Queries," Aug. 1868, p. 123) has searched the 

 ancient Chinese encyclopedias. He finds that gold-fish were first 

 reared in confinement during the Sung Dynasty which commenced 

 A. D. 960. In the year 1129 these fishes abounded. In another 

 place it is said that since the year 1548 there has been " produced at 

 Hangchow's a variety called the fire-fish, from its intensely red color. 

 It is universally admired and there is not a household where it is not 

 cultivated, in rivalry as to its color, and as a source of profit." 



f " Westminster Review," July, 1867, p. 7. 



X " Indian Cyprinidae," by Mr. M'Clelland, " Asiatic Researches,'* 

 vol. xix, part ii, 1839, p. 230. 



