42 THE FRESH-WATER AQUARIUM. 
is met with occasionally in Wiltshire, in the Trent, near 
Nottingham, and in some of the tributaries of the Cam, 
Mr. Yarrell describes it; but as I have not yet had the 
good fortune to possess a living specimen, I can only refer 
to it casually, 
C. cephalus.—The chub is a good aquarium fish, It 
is shy, but grows familiar under good treatment. Insects 
sooner attract it than any other food. Mr. Jesse says, 
that those in his vivarium throw off all reserve at the 
sight of a cockchafer, which they devour with eagerness. 
Among the Acanthopterygii, or the spiny-finned fishes 
of Cuvier’s arrangement, the only one suited to the fresh- 
water tank, is the noble perch, Percide. ‘These are bold 
and dignified, and their decisive markings make them 
attractive in a general collection. They require plenty of 
room, or they soon show signs of exhaustion; and, under 
the best of circumstances, cannot be pronounced a hardy 
fish in confinement. They are capricious. I have had 
healthy specimens, taken by net, die off in a week; and 
weakly ones, taken by the hook, with portions of the 
lower jaw torn away, recover, and live fora year, after 
the ragged portions had been removed by scissors. 
Gasterosteus needs a word or two. The sticklebacks 
are all pretty and interesting fish, plentifully found on the 
sea-coast, and in brooks and ponds all over the country. 
The species most frequently met with are G. semiarmatus, 
the half-armed stickleback, and G. pungitius, the ten- 
spined, but G. brachycentrus (short-spined), and G’. spi- 
nulosus (four-spined), are rare. 
Aquarian amateurs seem a little divided about the 
policy of keeping these in tanks, I can only advise the 
