22 THE AMERICAX MUSEUM JOURXAL 



many young visitors, who came and observed the fishes critically as a 

 result of their first experiments in aquarium keeping; on the other hand, 

 there were professional zoologists who came to see some of the fishes alive 

 which they had known only on the shelves of museums. 



The aquaria were nearly a hundred in number, mainly small ones, 

 balanced (still water), attractively displayed, showing besides fishes, rare 

 aquatic vegetation and a number of curious invertebrates. Popular ex- 

 hibits there were, of course, in number: gold fishes of many forms — "fan- 

 tails," "telescopes," "comets," " fringetails," some admirable specimens 

 both Chinese and Japanese, including some of the variety which is short 

 and heavy of body and blunt of tail, especially prized by the Japanese 

 fanciers. Then there were paradise fish (Macropodus) of all sizes, which is 

 sib to the famous gourami, the most delicately flavored of all East Indian 

 food fishes, as well as to the Bengalese Trichogastcr common in the Calcutta 

 market — here also shown living. 



But the feature of the exhibition was the number and interest of the 

 exotic forms represented, creatures which one is apt to know only from 

 pictures in textbooks. Thus there was the water butterfl\, Pantodon 

 (African), said to be a "flying fish," although judging from the habits of 

 the fish in the aquarium, the stroke of its filmy tail does not allow it to 

 spring far out of water. There was Mastacembclus, an Indian "eel" which 

 is not an eel. There was an Indian Ophiocrpliahis which can live beneath 

 sun-baked mud and which under ordinary conditions breathes partly by 

 means of a "lung," and resembles outwardly the American ganoid Amia, 

 which, by the way, is also more or less of an air breather. There were 

 several genera of cichlids, perchlike fishes, tropical x\merican, and of cha- 

 racinids which replace the tribe of carps in Africa and South America, and 

 include the most formidable fresh water fishes in the world. There were 

 tropical catfishes which are rarely seen out of their native waters, among 

 them Macrones (East Indian) with bright bands of color and exaggerated 

 "feelers," also a South American Dorad, its body half covered with armor, 

 and its fully armored cousin, C(dlichflu/s, which is probably the most 

 eccentric of all catfishes. There were forms whose habits of reproduction 

 are extraordinary, like Gambusia, Girardina, Pcecilia, which bear living 

 young, and were exhibited beside their youngsters. Finally, there was not 

 lacking the pla-kat, or Malayan fighting fish, Ihfta })U(inax, a veritable 

 aquatic game-cock reared for shows of fish-fighting which in Siam draw 

 throngs of spectators. 



Especial credit in l)ringing together many of these exotic and rare forms 

 is due to Mr. Isaac JJuchynan, an amateur who devotes much time to the 

 study of a(|uarial fishes, and it was similar interests which led Mr. Richard 

 Dorn, president of the society, to organize the present display. The society 



