THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 223 
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. 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 readi- 
ness, not to say greediness; however, bread should be given 
sparingly, lest, turning sour, it corrupt the water. They will 
also feed on the ,water-plant called Zemna (ducks’ meat), and 
also on small fry. 
When they want to move a little, they gently protrude 
themselves with their pectoral fins; but it is with their strong 
muscular tails only that they and all fishes shoot along with 
such inconceivable rapidity. It has been said that the eyes 
of fishes are immovable; but these apparently turn them for- 
ward 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 eyelids, 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 containing 
such fishes; the double refractions of the glass and water 
represent them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable 
variety of dimensions, shades, and colors; 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 its inhabitants into our 
parlors engages the fancy in a very agreeable manner. 
Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives of China 
and Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate 
as to thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. 
