Volume I 



SEPTEMBER, 1912 



Number 4 



Aquarium Notes 



R. W. SHUFRLDT, M. D., Wasliiiiffton, D. C. 



IT was with especial pleasure that I read 

 every line of the first minilK-r of the 

 new nature magazine, The Aquarium, and 

 no one wishes you more substantial and 

 continued success in this venture and much 

 needed publication than I do. The maga- 

 zine promises to 

 be everything we 

 need in this im- 

 portant and inter- 

 esting depart- 

 ment. 



At different 

 times in my life, 

 I have kept aqua- 

 ria of various 

 kinds ; examined 

 those kept by my 

 friends, and ac- 

 complished some- 

 thing in the way 

 of i>hotographing 

 live fishes and 

 other living forms 

 in aquaria. To 

 me it is truly re- 

 markable that 

 some such publi- 

 cation as The 



Aquarium has not appeared in this country 

 sooner; for, as we all know, there are many 

 such magazines published in Europe and 

 elsewhere; and, what is more to the point, 

 the aquarium is one of the important ad- 

 juncts we possess to aid us in the study of 

 living aquatic forms of all kinds, to say not 

 a word in regard to its use in securing ac- 



THE RED TRlTO]<l—{Spelerpes ml 

 Photo from life by Dr. Sliufeldt 



curate photograi)hs from life of so many 

 forms for illustrative purposes. In former 

 years, we were obliged to rely entirely upon 

 the brush and pencil to obtain our pictures 

 of fishes, fresh water and marine vertebrata, 

 and the entire list of aquatic plant-life and 

 invertel>rata, wherewith to illustrate our 

 literature; while, at the present time, these 

 tedious and expensive methods are giving 

 Avay before the 

 woi'k of the cam- 

 era with its far 

 more accurate 

 and JK-autiful re- 

 sults. 



Some ten or 

 twelve years ago, 

 I made my first 

 experiments in 

 the jihotography 

 of living fishes in 

 their natural ele- 

 ment, the first 

 paj^er having been 

 published by the 

 gov e r n m e n t . 

 When this ap- 

 peared, it induced 

 M. Fabre-Domer- 

 gue to present me 

 with a beautiful 

 copy f)f his superb 

 work in the same field. f 



A few years afterwards, I had an aqua- 



*Shufeldt, R. W. Experiments in Pliotojrraphy of 

 Live Fishes. Bulletin United States Fish Commission, 

 Vol. XIX for 1899, pp. 1-5, plates 1-9. 



tFabre-Domergiic. La Photofrraphie des Animaux 

 Aquatiqaes. Paris, 1899, p. 5. 10 photogravure plates 

 and 2 text cuts. This work is not nearly as well known 

 in this country as it deserves to Ve; its author had special 

 facilities for pursuing: the experiments he did, as he was, 

 at the time, adjunct dinctor of the zoological and physi- 

 ological laboratory of marine forms of the College of 

 France. (Concarneau). 



29 



