FISH PHOTOGRAPHY AT HOME 179 



does not show up satisfactorily in consequence of the 

 fish being mixed up with the weeds. 



When away from home, I have devoted a consider- 

 able amount of time to recording various types of 

 fish ; but at home I have usually taken one fish at 

 a time, and photographed it in various attitudes, or 

 its movements and methods of feeding. This is not 

 altogether an easy matter in a tank. First, the fish 

 must be procured, then he must be kept in the tank 

 under as favourable conditions as possible, in order 

 that he may become " at home " in his unusual sur- 

 roundings before any attempt is made to photograph 

 him. 



As an example of how to go to work to illustrate 

 the attitudes and habits of fish by photography when 

 working with a tank, I will explain how I obtained 

 the three photographs of a perch facing p. 6 and 

 the photographs of the nesting of the stickleback. 



The perch is a sulky fish and difficult to photo- 

 graph, and for the first two or three years the results 

 I obtained were very poor, because I tried to photo- 

 graph the fish before he had settled down in the tank. 

 About three years ago I constructed a tank on the 

 same principles as those described, but of much larger 

 size. In this I planted reeds, and allowed them to 

 grow. On a platform behind this tank I also grew 

 reeds in tins holding water. The glass of the tank 

 was cleaned daily on the inside to prevent it becom- 

 ing green. Into this large tank I turned a perch 



