422 A HISTORY OF FISHES 



keeping of living examples in aquaria and the exhibition of 

 dead specimens in museums will naturally come to mind. 

 Where it is impossible to observe fishes in their natural sur- 

 roundings, much may be learned of their habits by studying 

 them in captivity, and aquarium-keeping undertaken in an 

 intelligent manner will be found to provide a fascinating hobby 

 at a comparatively small cost, and will prove a source of infinite 

 amusement and instruction. Many rare and interesting tropical 

 fishes are nowadays imported by dealers, especially in Germany, 

 where many devotees are to be found. The formation and 

 maintenance of marine and fresh- water aquaria is a subject 

 too vast to be dealt with here, and, moreover, is one which has 

 been treated by experts in books especially devoted to the 

 matter. The subject of museum exhibitions is likewise worthy 

 of a chapter to itself, but considerations of space will make it 

 necessary to give only a few lines on the collection of fishes in 

 the National Museum at South Kensington. 



A visitor to the fish gallery at the Natural History Museum 

 often goes away under the impression that the series of some 

 two or three thousand coloured plaster casts and models, 

 stuflfed and painted skins, preparations in alcohol, skeletons, 

 etc., represent the whole of the collection, and some have 

 expressed disappointment at the absence of representatives of 

 certain species from the cases. Actually, the exhibits represent 

 a carefully selected series of specimens, displayed and labelled 

 in such a manner as to interest visitors and to give a general 

 impression of some of the more interesting members of the 

 fish world, and arranged to illustrate their relationships one 

 to the other. In addition, special cases are devoted to breeding, 

 development, coloration, sexual differences, and so on, while 

 others are designed to give an idea of the anatomy of the fish's 

 body as described in these pages. But this is by no means the 

 only collection in the museum, and there is a very much more 

 important series of specimens which is not exhibited to the 

 public. Some of these consist of dried skins, stuffed examples, 

 and skeletons, but the vast bulk of them are preserved in alcohol 

 in glass bottles. These bottles are clearly labelled with the 

 correct name of the species, and are all catalogued and arranged 

 in cupboards according to their natural relationships. This 

 study collection contains more than one hundred and fifty 

 thousand specimens, and although there are naturally a number 

 of gaps still to be filled, it includes representatives of about 

 eleven thousand out of some fifteen thousand species known 



