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 



