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Show 20G GOLD-FISII. CIIAl'. VIII. GoLn-FrsH. lJESIDES mammals and birds, few animals belonging to the other great classes have been domesticated; but to show that it is an almost universal bw that animals, when removed from their natural conditions of life, vary, and that races can be formed when selection is applied, it is necessary to say a few words on gold-fish, bees, and silk-moths. Gold-fish (Oyprinus auratus) were introduced into Europe only two or three centuries ago; but it is believed that they have been kept in confinement from an ancient period in China. 1\fr. Blyth 19 suspects from the analogous variation of other fishes that golden-coloured fish do not occur in a state of nature. rrhese fishes frequ ently live under the most unnatural conditions, and their variability in colour, size, and in some important points of structlire is very great. M. Sn.uvigny has described and given coloured drawings of no less than eighty-nine varieties."0 Many of the varieties, however, such as triple tail-fins, &c., ought to be called monstrosities; but it is difficult to draw any distinct line between a variation and a monstrosity. As goldfish are kept for ornament or curiosity, and as "the Chinese are just the people to have secluded a chance variety of any kind, and to have matched and paired from it," 51 we may feel nearly confident that selection has been largely practised in the formation of new breeds. It is however a singular fact that some of tho monstrosities or variations are not inherited; for Sir R. Heron "2 kept many of these fishes, and placed all the deformed fishes, namely those destitute of dorsal fins, and those furnished with a double anal fin, or triple tail, in a pond by themselves; but they did "not produce a greater proportion of deformed offspring than the perfect fishes." Passing over an almost infinite diversity of colour, we meet with the most extraordinary modifications of structure. Thus, out of about two dozen specimens bought in London, Mr. Yan·ell observed some with the dorsal fin extending along more than 10 The • Indian Field,' 1858, p. 255. w Yarrell's 'Dritish Fishes,' >ol. i. p. 319. 51 l\fr. Dlyth, in the 'Indinn Fichl,' 1858, p. 255. " 2 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,· :May 25th. 1812. CnAP. VIII. IIIVE-BEES. 297 half the length of the back; others with this fin reduced to <>nly five or six rays; and. one with no dorsal fin. The anal fins are .so~etimes double, and the tail is often triple. This latter ~ev~atwn of structure seems generally to occur" at the expense <>f. the ":hole . or part of some other fin;'' 53 but Bory de Saint Vmcent saw at Madrid gold-fish furnished with a dorsal fin and. a triple tail. One variety is characterized by a hump on It~ back near .the head; and the Rev. L. Jenyns 55 has descnbed. a. most ~mgular variety, imported from China, almost glo~ular ~n form hke a. Diodon, with "the fleshy part of the tail as I.f entirely cut away; the caudal fin being set on a little behmd the dorsal and immediately above the anal." In this fish the anal and caud~l fins we.re double; the anal fin being attached to the body m a vertwal line : the eyes also were enormously largo and protuberant. HIVE-BEES. BE~S have been domesticated from an ancient period; if indeed their st~te can be consi~ered one of domestication, for they search f~r thmr own food~ with th~ exception of a little generally gtven to them durmg the wmter. Their habitation is a hive ~nstead of a hole in a tree. Bees, however, have been transported mto almost every quarter of .the world, so that climate ought to ~ave pro~uccd whatever direct effect it is capable of producmg. It IS frequently asserted that the bees in different part~ 0~6 Great Britain differ in size, colour, and temper; and ~odron says that they are generally larger in the south than 1 ~ other parts of France; it has also been asserted that the httle 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, i.t is known that bees produced in very old combs are smaller, owmg to the cells having become smaller from the 63 Yarrcll's 'British Fishes,' vol. i. p. 319. 54 'Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat.,' tom. v. p. 276. 56 'Observations in Nat. Hist.,' 184G p- 211. Dr. Gray Lns describc;d, U: Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 1860, p. ~51, a nearly similar variety, but destitute of a dorsal fin. 56 'De l'Espece,' 1859, p. 459. With respect to the bees of Burgundy, see M. Gerard, art. 'Espcce,' in • Diet. Univers. d'Hist. Nat.' |