GOLDFISH (Cαrαmws auratus). In China and the warmer parts of Japan a fish extremely similar to the Crucian carp of Europe is of very common occurrence in ponds and other still waters. In the wild state its colours do not differ from those of a Crucian carp, and like that fish it is tenacious of life and easily domesticated. Albinos seem to be rather common; and as in other fishes (for instance, the tench, carp, eel, flounder), the colour of most of these albinos is a bright orange or golden yellow; occasionally even this shade of colour is lost, the fish being more or less pure white or silvery. The Chinese have domesticated these albinos for a long time, and by careful selection have succeeded in propagating all those strange varieties, and even monstrosities, which appear in every domestic animal. In some individuals the dorsal fin is only half its normal length, in others entirely absent; in others the anal fin has a double spine; in others all the fins are of nearly double the usual length. The snout is frequently malformed, giving the head of the fish an appearance similar to that of a bull-dog. The variety most highly prized at present has an extremely short snout, eyes which almost wholly project beyond the orbit, no dorsal fin, and a very long threeor four-lobed caudal fin (Telescope-fish). The gold-fish is now distributed over nearly all the civilized parts of the world. It was first brought to England in the year 1691, but was very scarce till 1728, when it was imported in great numbers from Holland, where the fish had already become domesticated. It will not thrive in rivers; in large ponds it readily reverts to the coloration of the original wild stock. It flourishes best in small tanks and ponds, in which the water is constantly changing and does not ...