20 



their eyes about, and appeared near-sighted. After I had kept them till 

 the 1 8th of October, and made several observations of their habits and 

 mode of feeding, the smaller specimen died, having, as I believed, 

 received a nip from the claw of a crab, which had been incautiously 

 introduced into the aquarium with zoophites ; however this may be, I 

 did not immediately miss the specimen, and it had been dead some days 

 and partly eaten when I found it. I now thoroughly cleansed my tank 

 and let in more light, and it soon became brilliantly clear and healthy. 



The large pipe-fish and a small double-spotted goby, which I obtained 

 at the same time and place as the former, were now the sole occupants of 

 the tank, and lived in health ; and, I may add, in hai-mony together. I 

 had some difficulty in knowing how to feed the fish. My kind friend 

 Mr. Sibert Saunders, of Whitstable, sent me one or two parcels of fresh 

 gathered sea-weed to turn into the aquarium for the purpose of being 

 overhauled by the pipe-fish for animal life. I had read in Tarrell, that 

 they lived on entomostraca, so I hoped to introduce these with the sea- 

 weed. I found indeed the pipe-fish did take a lively interest in these 

 newly introduced weeds, making, I might say, a perfectly microscopical 

 examination of them ; indeed, while so engaged, focusing its eyes alter- 

 nately on different parts of the weed, it might have been taken for a 

 veritable member of the Quekett Club. These eyes of the pipe-fish are 

 large in proportion to the size of the fish, and a considerable space of 

 head intervenes between them. They are directed rather upwards and 

 outwards, and are endowed with considerable movement being partially 

 stalked, reminding one of the stalk-eyed crustaceans. The fish uses one 

 at a time, and thus, whilst making his examination, was just like a 

 ■watch-maker making use of his monocular t;quint-glass to look into the 

 interior of a watch. 



As I could not be always troubling my friends to send me fresh sea- 

 weed, living, as I do, some distance from the sea, I conceived a plan of 

 feeding my fish on fresh-water entomostraca. I constructed a filter 

 and filtered a considerable quantity of pond-water that abounded in 

 Daphnia, or fresh-water fleas. These, when thus obtained, I turned into 

 the tank and found they would live some hours in the sea-water, and were 

 eagerly devoured by the fish. The goby getting the largest share of the 

 spoil he would stuff himself out like any alderman at a white-bait 

 dinner. 



On all occasions, when the entomostraca were introduced, we watched 

 with much interest the fish feeding; I say we, for several of my daughters 

 took great interest in the fish. The short-sight of the pipe-fish, already 

 alluded to, was further evident in these observations ; while the goby 

 would dart about from one end of the tank to the other after the fresh- 

 water fleas, the pipe-fish merely moved leisurely till he neared the side of 

 the tank and then assumed his erect attitude, the tip of his tail resting 

 at times on the bottom of the tank, and in this position, he would survey 

 the struggling fleas by bending his head downwards, and thus resemble a 

 horse; indeed, it is a nearly related species to the hippocampus or sea-horse, 



