THE AQUARIUM, APRIL, 1890. 



35 



retreat. A rush of wings, with a stri- 

 dent chirp between that of a wood- 

 pecker and a jay, and suddenly there 

 aliglits on a dead bough, overhanging 

 the shallow, above you, a king-fisher. 

 His advent probably startled the ob- 

 servant cray-fish, and for a minute dis- 

 composes all the finny tribe. .Settling 

 on a bough as if part of it, he takes up 

 his positioji and betraying his presence 

 with neither sound nor movement, the 

 alarm subsides. All at once a plunge 

 and a splashing of the water, and a 

 more venturesome fish who had aj)- 

 proached the anseen watcher, falls a 

 victim to the spear pointed beak of that 

 bird, who scurries away with his prey 

 to be disposed of elsewhere. 



These are only- a few of the many 

 and varied scenes that an hour's ob- 

 servation may present, but the interest 

 awakened is great and the pleasure this 

 insight into life below the waters has 

 afforded is such that we promise our- 

 selves another visit, the records of 

 which may supply another article to 

 vour readers. 



THE PARADISE EISH. 



{Macropodus venust us. ) 



The Paradise fish is a native of Siam. 

 In India and China these beautiful 

 little fish are cultivated for ornamental 

 purposes only. The male is the larger 

 of the two sexes, measuring, when full 

 grown, from the mouth to the end of 

 the caudal fin, three and a half inches. 

 The body is very much compressed up- 

 on the sides, and shaped very much 

 like that of the pumpkin-seed sunfish. 

 Its colors surpass in brilliancy any fish 

 heretofore cultivated for the aquarium. 

 The head is ashy gray, mottled with 

 irregular dark spots ; the gills are azur- 



ine blue, bordered with brilliant 

 crimson ; the eyes are yellow and red, 

 with a black pupil ; the sides of the 

 body and the crescent shaped caudal- 

 fin are deep crimson, the former hav- 

 ing ten or twelve vertical blue stripes, 

 while the latter is bordered with very 

 light blue. The under surface of the 

 body is continually changing color — 

 sometimes it is whitish, at others gray 

 or black. The dorsal and anal fins are 

 remarkably large ; hence the generic 

 name of the fish - w«c?-o, large, jyodus, 

 the foot or fin. Both of these fins 

 are shaped alike ; they are gray in color, 

 striped and dotted with brown, and 

 bordered along their extreme edge with 

 peacock blue. The dull-colored ven- 

 tral fins are supported by brilliant 

 ci-imson spines which, in some cases, 

 extend over one inch beyond the fins, 

 and in this case they appear like strings 

 spun of red silk, streaming alongside 

 of the lower part of the body. 

 The pectorals, situated directly above 

 the ventral fins, are well shaped, but 

 being transparent, show no color. All 

 these colors above described are most 

 brilliant when the fish is excited. For 

 instance, when engaged in combat for 

 the possession of a female fish, or when 

 courting, he shows the most brilliant 

 colors, in order to attract the attention 

 of his lady-love, she being especially 

 fond of bright colors. 



On such occasions he expands all of 

 his fins to their greatest extent. The 

 caudal fin appears then to be covered 

 with little pearls, like the eyes on a pea- 

 cock's tail, and the under surface of 

 the fish becomes jet black. The color 

 of the dorsal fin changes constantly 

 from brilliant green to indigo blue, now 

 and then showing white spots, and 

 Avhile the body is in a tremulous mo- 

 tion, radiating colors of everv conceiv- 



