Chap. VIII. HIVE-BEES. 297 



half the length of the back ; others with this fin reduced to 

 only five or six rays ; and one with no dorsal fin. The anal fins 

 are sometimes double, and the tail is often triple. This latter 

 deviation of structure seems generally to occur " at the expense 

 of the whole or part of some other fin ;" 53 but Bory de Saint 

 Vincent 54 saw at Madrid gold-fish furnished with a dorsal fin 

 and a triple tail. One variety is characterized by a hump 

 on its back near the head ; and the Eev. L. Jenyns 55 has 

 described a most singular variety, imported from China, almost 

 globular in form like a Diodon, with " the fleshy part of the tail 

 as if entirely cut away ; the caudal fin being set on a little 

 behind the dorsal and immediately above the anal." In this 

 fish the anal and caudal fins were double ; the anal fin being 

 attached to the body in a vertical line: the eyes also were 

 enormously large and protuberant. 



Hive-Bees. 



Bees have been domesticated from an ancient period ; if indeed 

 their state can be considered one of domestication, for they search 

 for their own food, with the exception of a little generally 

 given to them during the winter. Their habitation is a hive 

 instead of a hole in a tree. Bees, however, have been transported 

 into almost every quarter of the world, so that climate ought 

 to have produced whatever direct effect it is capable of pro- 

 ducing. It is frequently asserted that the bees in different 

 parts of Great Britain differ in size, colour, and temper; and 

 Godron 56 says; that they are generally larger in the south than 

 m other parts of France ; it has also been asserted that the 

 little brown bees of High Burgundy, when transported to La 

 Bresse, become large and yellow in the second generation. 

 But these statements require confirmation. As far as size is 

 concerned, it is known that bees produced in very old combs are 

 smaller, owing to the cells having become smaller from the 

 ^Yarrell's 'British Fishes/ vol. i. p . 151 , a nearly similar varietv> but 



54 «tk«* m„ j.tt- i ^ T , destitute of a dorsal fin. 



2?6 DlCt - CksS - d Hlst - Nat ->' tom. v. ,6 , De rEsp . ce , 1859j p# 459> With 



' « ' Observations in Nat. Hist. ' 1846 M ^ *!! ^^ ° f B ? r ° und 7' S f 



n 911 Br ft m i ; ' .' M - Gei-ard, art. 'Espece,' in 'Diet, 



p. 211. Dr. Gray has described, in Univers d'Hi«t \M' 

 - Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist./ 1860, * 



