THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 107 



then fitted up for the small carnivora, and they tenanted it 

 till it was pulled down in 1904, and the New Small Mammals 

 House erected on the site. 



In the Exhibition year the Western Aviary was completed, 

 presenting a front 168 feet long, with nineteen divisions, 

 containing in all about two hundred birds of various species. 



The Aquarium — or Aquavivarium — was opened in May, 

 1853, and at once became popular, no doubt owing to the 

 writings of Gosse, Bowerbank, Warrington, and others. The 

 tanks were stocked with sea and river fish, and marine and 

 fresh- water invertebrates— from cuttle-fish to sponges. In his 

 second Guide, published in 1858, D. W. Mitchell claimed 

 that the success which attended the public exhibition of fish 

 and the lower aquatic animals, then first attempted on a 

 large scale, had promoted the study of these creatures, not 

 only at home but on the Continent. 



There was, however, an intention to do practical work. 

 At the Anniversary Meeting in 1854, the Council were able, 

 "through the kindness of Count Montizon, to exhibit the 

 first photograph of a living fish which has been produced 

 in England, and probably in Europe," and they pointed out 

 the great advantage " to the study of Ichthyology deducible 

 from this application of the art." 



Neither ichthyology nor pisciculture was much advanced 

 by this Aquarium, but the establishment of tanks for marine 

 and fresh-water invertebrates, and the observations made on 

 molluscs, crustaceans, polyzoans, worms, starfish and sea-urchins, 

 and hydroids, added something to human knowledge. As a 

 case in point, Mr. Holdsworth's studies on Gladonema 

 radiatum, the " slender coryne " of Gosse's " Devonshire Coast " 

 (p. 257, pi. xvi.), may be mentioned. With regard to these 

 Hincks said in his " British Hydroid Zoophytes " (i. 64) : 



My friend Mr. E. W. H. Holdswortli has been fortunate enough to 

 procure several specimens of the free zooid from the tanks in the 

 Zoological Gardens, and has succeeded in keeping them, so as to trace 

 almost the entire course of the reproductive history, while his own 

 aquarium has yielded the polypites in considerable numbers. His notes 

 enable me to supply an original account of the species, which corroborates, 

 and in one or two points corrects, that which we have from Dujardin. 



