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39 
inferiors. Hugh Miller, speaking of the fiving representatives of these 
fossil fish, says : " They seem to have been spared amid the wreck of 
genera and species to serve as a key by which to unlock the marvels of 
icthyology of those remote periods of geological history appropriated to 
the dynasty offish." I am inclined to think that my specimen scorned 
the ordinary food of the other fish, and died from inanition, as I never 
could induce him, while I was watching, to approach while they were 
feeding, and if he did satisfy himself at all, it must have been under 
cover of darkness. However, as he did not appear emaciated at his 
death, he may have subsisted on animalcule in the fre.-.h water from 
time to time supplied. The ordinary pike and doree I never attempted 
to keep, and it is almost needless for me to say that brook trout will not 
live in any ordinary aquarium. The "Shiner" is also too delicate for 
general keeping and requires highly aerated water. 
I have had almost all kinds of small fry, known as " minnows," in 
my aquarium, - consisting of young chub, dace and minnows. They are 
very lively and become in a short time accustomed to their confined 
quarters, but from their delicate formation I would never recommend 
them as permanent inmates. There is one exception, however ; that 
is the barred, or black minnow, which is very hardy and a very amusing 
fish to watch. Sometimes motionless on the bottom, as if wrapped in 
deep meditation ; at other times balancing himself in the water, he keeps 
up a continual flapping of his ventral fins, working them like a fly-wheel, 
with apparently no other object than exercise. At other times, he darts 
about from side to side, and if more than one of these minnows are 
occupants they seem to exchange ideas, as the rest of his own species sail 
about conjointly with him. 
Moving about, as I have done, from place to place, my Aquarium 
occupying the safest place in my baggage and being the first thing 
attended to after unpacking, I have had opportunities of stocking it 
from various waters, and when I went to reside for a short time at 
Buckingham I obtained one day, when fishing in a little trout stream, 
back of the village, a small specimen ot the Bull-head, one of the very 
few that I have ever taken. He was carefully consigned to my Aquarium 
but only lived a few days, owing probably, to his transfer from the clear, 
crystal waters of that running stream to the narrow compass of 
