300 GOLD AND SILVER FISHES. 



supplied by the water; because, though they seem 

 to eat nothing, yet the consequences of eating often 

 drop from them. That they are best pleased with 

 such jejune diet may easily be confuted, since, if 

 you toss them crumbs, they will seize them with 

 great readiness, not to say greediness : however, 

 bread should be given sparingly, lest, turning sour, 

 it corrupt the water. They will also feed on the 

 water plant called lemna (duck's meat,) and also on 

 small fry. 



When they want to move a little, they gently 

 protrude themselves with their pinned pectorales ; 

 but it is with their strong muscular tails only that 

 they, and all fishes, shoot along with such incon- 

 ceivable rapidity. It has been said, that the eyes 

 of fishes are immoveable ; but these apparently turn 

 them forward or backward, in their sockets, as their 

 occasions require. They take little notice of a 

 lighted candle, though applied close to their heads, 

 but flounce, and seem much frightened, by a sudden 

 stroke of the hand against the support whereon the 

 bowl is hung ; especially when they have been mo- 

 tionless, and are perhaps asleep. As fishes have no 

 eyelids, it is not easy to discern when they are sleep- 

 ing or not, because their eyes are always open. 



Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl 

 containing such fishes : the double refractions of the 

 glass and water represent them, when moving, in a 

 shifting and changeable variety of dimensions, shades, 

 and colours; while the two mediums, assisted by 

 the concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify 

 and distort them vastly ; not to mention that the 

 introduction of another element and its inhabitants 

 into our parlours engages the fancy in a very agree- 

 able manner. 



Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives 

 of China and Japan, yet are become so well recon- 



