3.JO N A T U R A L H I S T O R Y
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nourilhment fupplied by the water; becaufe, though they feed!
to eat nothing, yet the confequences of eating often drop from
them. That they are belt pleafed with tuch jejune diet may eafdy
be confuted, fince if you tofs them crumbs they will feize them
with great readinefs, not to fay greedioefs: however, bread fhould
be given fparingly, left, turning four, it corrupt the water. They
will alfo feed on the water-plant called lemna {duck’s meat), and alfo
on fmall fry. * “
When they want to move a little they gently protrude themfelves
with their pinna peftordes; but it is with their ftrong mufcular tails
only that they and all fifties ftioot along with fuch inconceivable
rapidity. It has been faid that the eyes of fifties are immoveable i
but thefe apparently turn them forward or backward in their
fockets as their occafions require. They take little notice o f a
lighted candle, though applied clofe to their heads, but flounce
and feem much frightened by a fudden ftroke of the hand againft
the fupport whereon the bowl is hung; efpeciafty when they have
been motionlefs, and are perhaps afleep. As fifties have no eye*
lids, it is not eafy to difeern when they are fleeping or not, be*
caufe their eyes are always open.
Nothing can be more amufing than a glafs bowl containing fuch
fifties : die double refraftions of the glafs and water reprefent them,
when moving, in a fluffing and changeable variety of dimenfions,
Ihades, and colours 5 while the two mediums, aflifted by the
concavo-convex ftiape of the veflel, magnify and diftort them
vaftly; not to mention that the introduction of another element
and it s inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy in a very
agreeable manner.
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Gold and ftlver fijhes, though originally natives of China and
Japan, yet are become fo well reconciled to our climate as to
thrive and multiply very fall in our ponds and ftews. Linnaus
ranks this fpecies of filh under the genus of cyprinus, or carp, and
calls it cyprinus auratus. d
Some people exhibit this fort of filh in a very fanciful way;
for they caufe a glafs bowl to be blown with a large hollow fpaee
within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they
put a bird occafionally; fo that you may fee a goldfinch or a
linnet hopping as it were in the midft of the water, and the fifties
fwimming in a circle round it. The Ample exhibition of the
fifties is agreeable and pleafant; but in fo- complicated a way
becomes whimfical and unnatural, and liable to the objedtion due
to him,
“ Qni variare enpit rem prodigialiter unam.” '