CARASSIUS AURATUS. Ill 



pectoral fin is rather large. The caudal is moderately emarginate. The 

 pharyngeal teeth form a row of four on each side, as in Caransius vulgaris. 



Dr. Giinther finds the chief variations in the domestic races produced 

 in the vertebral column, which may be variously deformed so as to shorten or 

 elongate the back ; secondly, in the fins ; thirdly, in the eyes. The fins vary 

 greatly in development. Sometimes the dorsal tin is reduced to a serrated ray 

 and a few soft rays ; or it may be absent, without the other fins being in any 

 way modified. Occasionally the loss of the dorsal fin is associated with 

 the development of a double anal spine, and Fatio mentions that the anal fin 

 itself may be double. The caudal fin, on the other hand, is liable to increase, 

 not always in compensation for loss of the dorsal fin, for that fin is sometimes 

 present with a double tail, or three-lobed, or even four-lobed, caudal fin ; while 

 in one variety, known as the Telescope Fish, the development of a lobed tail 

 is associated with large eyes which protrude on pedicles, like the eyes of stalk- 

 eyed Crustacea. 



The legend runs that the Gold Fish was introduced into France as a present 

 to Madame de Pompadour. On this circumstance Badham moralises in the 

 following terms : " The Pompadour's reign of beauty was soon over, but her 

 lubric rivals have maintained the breed, spread their conquests into distant 

 lands, and secured to themselves hosts of admirers in every part of the civilised 

 world." He goes on to say : "They are not, however, perfect beauties, and in 

 symmetry of form yield the palm to the silvery Bleak, and darting Dace, while 

 not a few have personal defects, such as lame fins and goggled eyes, or the mouth 

 and sometimes the whole body screwed to one side." The colours of the fish 

 vary with its age. In the words of Dr. Badham : " It is at first of a dark 

 sooty colour, and the first change is indicated by the appearance of small silvery 

 points, which are dispersed over the scales/ These points spread and deepen in 

 tint till the whole body is encased in a spangled robe of gold. In old age its 

 brilliancy fades, and it at last dies with the body bleached and cheeks 

 colourless. " In the Seine, Blanchard observes that the colour is soon lost, so 

 that the fish resembles ordinary brown or greenish Carp, and Fatio states 

 that the red colour is regained when the green fish is placed in a glass bowl. 

 In ponds the colours may be silvery, violet, reddish-brown, bright red, and 

 piebald with these colours. Gold Fish are raised for export in large numbers in 

 Portugal. And Buckland refers to a German farm near Oldenburg which 

 consists of 120 ponds, bordering on the river Hunte. They cover seven and 

 three-quarter acres of peat land. In some of the ponds the temperature is 

 100 Fahr., the water being obtained from the engines of a hemp factory. 

 The stock consists of about three thousand fish. Here they breed in the spring 

 and summer, and sometimes there is a third brood in the autumn. The fish 



