3668 The Zoologist — September, 1873. 



utterly failed in reducing his theory to practice, and his estab- 

 lishment for exhibiting the compensatory process was totally 

 unsuccessful. 



Imitation is the inevitable tribute, the sweet-smelling incense, 

 offered on the altar of obvious success. I will not presume 

 to express a doubt of the originality of many of those who set up 

 aquariums between 1830 and 1840, but I think that most of us 

 were incited to the act by Mr. Bowerbank's successful example ; 

 Goring and Pritchard admit the fact; they even quote Mr. Bower- 

 bank as the authority for their doings. I was a similar imitator of 

 my friend: after seeing his captives, and watching the unspeakable 

 grace and beauty of their movements, I caught at once at this new 

 field of observation. In January, 1832, I commenced operations 

 with a water-net made of cheese-cloth : the Woolwich Marshes 

 and Wandsworth Common were the scenes of ray exploits, and a 

 large white basin my first aquarium : some of the results were 

 pnbUshed at p. 315 of the first volume of the 'Entomological 

 Magazine' in 1833, simultaneously with Mr. Bowerbank's; I made 

 my appearance as an aquarian, as I may truly say, hanging on by 

 the skirts of my leader's coat. I soon became absorbed in the 

 denizens of the white basin, and they were as speedily transferred 

 to a more convenient receptacle, an upright glass jar, where they 

 lived in health for a very considerable time, but the only observa- 

 tion published in 1833 was that " the carnivorous water-beetles, 

 Dytiscus, Colymbetes, Acilius, Hydroporus, &c., in swimming 

 moved their hind legs simultaneously, striking out with great 

 vigour in the same way as a frog; whereas the herbivorous 

 water-beetles. Hydrous, Hydrophilus, &c., moved their hind legs 

 alternately, thus making weaker strokes and progressing in the 

 water much more slowly." Professor Westwood, at pp. 97 and 

 123 of the first volume of his ' Modern Classification,' did me the 

 honour to copy, endorse and adopt my observations. I might here 

 introduce a multitude of jottings on the manners and customs of 

 water-beetles in confinement, but I forbear. 



In the years 1836, 1837 and 1838 my friend Mr. Edwards, a most 

 accurate and painstaking observer, then residing at 17, High-street, 

 Shoreditch, by means of his aquarium, made himself thoroughly 

 acquainted with one of the most deeply interesting and unexpected 

 facts ever discovered in the entire range of Natural History — I 

 allude to the nidification of sticklebacks. It was not until fourteen 



