31 2 GOLD-FISH. Chap. VIII. 



differ much in disposition and character, and in some small 

 degree in song. They produce eggs three or four times during 

 the year. 



GoLD-FlSH. 



Besidks mammals and birds, only a few animals belonging to 

 the other great classes have been domesticated ; but to show 

 that it is an almost universal law that animals, when removed 

 from their natural conditions of life, vary, and that races can 

 be formed when selection is applied, it is necessary to say a 

 few words on gold-fish, bees, and silk-moths. 



Gold-fish (Cyprmus auratus) were introduced into Europe 

 only two or three centuries ago ; but they have been kept in 

 confinement from an ancient period in China. Mr. Blyth ^^ 

 suspects, from the analogous variation of other fishes, that 

 golden-coloured fish do not occur in a state of nature. These 

 fishes frequently live under the most unnatural conditions, 

 and their variability in colour, size, and in some important 

 points of structure is very great. M. Sau\agny has described 

 and given coloured drawings of no less than eighty-nine 

 varieties.^^ Many of the varieties, however, such as triple 

 tail-fins, &c., ought to be called monstrosities ; but it is difii 

 cult to draw any distinct line between a variation and a 

 monstrosity. As gold-fish are kept for ornament or curiosity, 

 and as " the Chinese are just the people to have secluded a 

 chance variety of any kind, and to have matched and paired 

 from it,"^^ it might have been predicted that selection 

 would have been largely practised in the formation of new 

 breeds ; and this is the case. In an old Chinese work it is 

 said that fish with vermilion scales were first raised in con- 

 finement during the Sung dynasty (which commenced a.d. 

 960), "and now they are cultivated in families everj^where for 

 the sake of ornament." In another and more ancient work, it is 

 said that " there is not a household where the gold-fish is not 

 cultivated, in rivalry as to its colour, and as a source of 

 profit," &c.^^ Although many breeds exist, it is a singular 



50 The 'Indian Field,* 1858, p. 255. 1858, p. 255. 



»' Yarrell's ' British Fishes,' vol. i. " W. F. Mayers, 'Chinese Nvl<» 



p_ 319. and Quaries,' Aug. 1868, p. 123. 

 ' »» Mr. Blyth, in the ' Inci'an Field.' 



