tate of nature. These fishes frequently live under the most
unnatural conditions, and their variability in colour, size, and in some
important points of structure is very great. M. Sauvigny has described and
given coloured drawings of no less than eighty-nine varieties.[485] 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 gold-fish 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,"[486]
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 the
monstrosities or variations are not inherited; for Sir R. Heron[487] 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. Yarrell observed some with the dorsal fin
extending along more than {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;"[488] but Bory de Saint Vincent[489] 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 Rev.
L. Jenyns[490] 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,