NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 171 



contains the swimming-bladders, which contribute to 

 render it buoyant. Some that delight in gold and silver 

 fishes have adopted a notion that they need no aliment. 

 True it is that they will subsist for a long time without 

 any apparent food but what they can collect from pure 

 water frequently changed ; yet they must draw some 

 support from animalcula, and other nourishment 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 cor- 

 rupt the water. They will also feed on the water-plant 

 called Lemna (ducks' meat), and also on small fry. 



When they want to move a little, they gently protrude 

 themselves with their pinna pectorales ; but it is with their 

 strong muscular tails only that they and all the fishes 

 shoot along with such inconceivable rapidity. It has been 

 said that the eyes of fishes are immovable ; but these appa- 

 rently turn them forward or backward in their sockets as 

 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 motionless, and are perhaps asleep. 

 As fishes have no eye-lids, it is not easy to discern when 

 they are sleeping or not, because their eyes are always open. 



Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl con- 

 taining 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 

 it's inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy in a 

 very agreeable manner. 



Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China 



