OF FISH. 
2 U 
splendid that the finest gilding cannot approach it. The 
female is white, but her tail and half of her body resem- 
bles the lustre of silver. The red and white colours 
are not always the distinguishing marks of the male and 
female; but that the females are known by several white 
spots which are seen round the orifices, that serve them 
as organs of hearing, and the males by having these spots 
much brighter. The nostrils of the gold-fish are double, 
wide, and placed near the eyes. The body is covered 
with large scales, and the tail is forked; but there is no 
fish in which the fins vary so much. The colour of the 
gold fish changes with age. In the first year it is gene- 
rally black, a colour very rarely found among the inhabi- 
tants of the watery element. In the course of a few years, 
silver spots make their appearance, and gradually in- 
crease till they cover the whole body. It then turns red, 
and becomes more beautiful the older it grows. Some- 
times, indeed, it turns red before it assumes the silver 
hue, and in some instances, the fish is red from the very 
first. 
These fish are natives of a lake not far from the high 
mountain of Tsienking, near the city of Tehangou, sit- 
uated in the province of Che Kiang, in China. From 
this place they were transported to the other provinces 
of that empire, to Japan, and at length to Europe. 
Cod. ( Gadus . PI. 44.) The head of the cod fish is 
smooth; the colour on the back and sides is of a dusky 
olive, variegated with yellow spots; its belly is white; 
the lateral line runs from the gills to the tail, which at 
the abdomen is curved, but elsewhere is straight; its 
scales are very small, and adhere firmly to the skin; its 
roes are large; at the angle of the lower jaws there hangs 
a single beard, which is short, seldom exceeding a fin- 
ger’s length; its tongue its broad; it has several rows of 
teeth, like the pike; and in the palate, near the orifice of 
the stomach, and near the gills, it has small clusters of 
teeth. It has three back fins, two at the gills, and two 
at the breast, two others behind the anus, and the tail 
is plain. 
