thrown into the ponds. The balls are light and for a few minutes float like corks while the fish 

 push them about with their noses in the efforts to eat them; after a time, becoming water soaked, 

 they gradually disintegiate, sink, and are devoured. 



The goldfish is a common theme in Japanese decorative and industrial art, and is a favorite 

 subject for biological investigation. Some of the leading men of science of Japan have delved into 

 the natural history of this fish, and have written most entertainingly of its various phases. Being 

 a plastic material, the goldfish when skillfully bred, yields many surprises to the biologist as 

 well as to the cultivator. 



Origin of the Goldfish and its Culture in Japan 



Many things that have been firmly established in Japan for centuries in reality had their origin 

 in China, and among the more noteworthy of these is the highly colored cultivated variety of gold- 

 fish. The goldfish is possibly native to Japan, and fish having the dull coloration and simple form 

 of the original wild species are found in open waters all over Japan, but in some cases these are 

 as likely to have been the progeny of fish that escaped from private ponds and reverted to the wild 



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