OUR PUBLIC AQUARIA. 



of this live food into the show tanks by the assistants 

 is always an animated sight, the inhabitants soon 

 learning the times and appearances of their keepers. 

 In the Crystal Palace Aquarium, with only 20,000 

 gallons of water in the tanks, the food supplied to the 

 living objects costs I2O/. per annum. 



We cannot do better than conclude with the follow- 

 ing remarks by Mr. Saville-Kent, contained in his 

 paper above mentioned as to his experience of the 

 feeding habits, &e., of the marine animals he has 

 superintended. Herrings, whether old or young, are 

 partial to living food ; feeding chiefly, in the latter 

 instance, on entomostraca, and the larval young of 

 the higher Crustacea. Such pabulum being difficult 

 to obtain so far inland, a variety of substitutes were 

 offered by way of experiment ; but for a long time 

 none successfully. Ultimately an irresistible bonne- 

 bouche suggested itself, in the form of the hard part 

 or adductor muscle of the common mussel. This 

 substance, minced fine, being clean, hard, and white, 

 with probably a somewhat crustacean flavour, was 

 devoured with avidity by the little fish, and has 

 constituted the chief staple of their existence ever 

 since. In the course of a few weeks the whitebait 

 became so accustomed to confinement as readily to 

 take their prepared food from the keeper's hand a 

 circumstance which would seem to indicate that young 

 fish, like the young of other animals, are more readily 

 susceptible of domestication, adult herrings not being 



