6 



THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1895. 



the bottom, as if wrapped in deep med- 

 itation ; at other times balancing him- 

 self in the water, he keeps up a contin- 

 ual flapping of his ventral fins, working 

 them like a fly-wheel, with apparently 

 no other object than exercise. At 

 other times, he darts about from side 

 to side, and if more than one of these 

 minnows are occupants they seem 

 to exchange ideas, as the rest of 

 his own species sail about con- 

 jointly with him. 



Moving about, as I have done, 

 from place to place, my aquarium 

 occupying the safest place in my 

 baggage, and being the first thing 

 attended to after unpacking, I 

 have had opportunities of stock- 

 ing it from various waters, and 

 when I went to reside for a short 

 time at Buckingham, I obtained 

 one day, when fishing in a little 

 trout stream back of the village, 

 a small specimen of the bull-head, 

 one of the very few that I have 

 ever taken. He was carefully con- 

 signed to my aquarium, but only 

 lived a few days, owing probably, 

 to his transfer from the clear, 

 crystal waters of that running 

 stream to the narrow compass of 

 still water, to which he was unac- 

 customed. He lay all the time en- 

 sconced between two small stones, 

 hiding himself as closely as possi- 

 ble from observation, refusing food, 

 and evidently sulking as wild animals 

 do when first placed in confinement. 

 The enormous size of his mouth as com- 

 pared with his other dimensions, gave 

 evidence of the capacity of these fish for 

 disposing of a large meal at a time, but 

 I never had the satisfaction of witness- 

 ing the operation of feeding. 



(To be continued.} 



AQUARIUM AND TERRARIUM 

 COMBINED. 



My aquarium is thirty-one by sixteen 

 and twelve inches high. Disregarding 

 marine shells and corals and ruined cas- 

 tles, I built a large rock out of tuffstone 

 and other grotesque pieces of rocks, 



Design for an Aqua-Terrarium. 



reaching four to five inches above the 

 surface of the water and concealing in its 

 interior a pot with cyperus alternifolia 

 (Chinese umbrella plant). The rocky 

 cone occupies nearly one-half of the 

 aquarium, and the space between it and 

 the glass is filled with sagittaria planted 

 in the sand. A few plants, water 

 poppy and nymphcea flava, are in pots 

 distributed in the other half, and the 

 pots are covered and concealed by 



