The Zoologist— Novembee, 1873. 3759 



Here then I conclude my observations on aquariums and arrange- 

 ments for their maintenance. I have in reserve sundry notes as to 

 their inhabitants, which are perhaps rather more in my way, 

 I confess to feeling a greater interest in living beings than in the 

 mechanical arrangements for their benefit. Still I shall do my best 

 to explain should explanation be required at my hands, and shall 

 only be too happy to receive questions that I can answer. 



I should also like to add that although I have mentioned only 

 one 'Handbook,' it is because I knew of only one when I com- 

 menced this notice. Since then I have received a second, the 

 ' Official Guide Book to the Brighton Aquarium,' by W. Saville 

 Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S. It is a pleasant and readable account of that 

 magnificent building, and I hope to return to it again and again. 

 In the mean time I would impress on the compilers of these books 

 the value of simplicity. They themselves luxuriate, aye revel, in 

 technicalities and what is called the language of Science; but they 

 must not on this account hope to inspire the general public with 

 the same refined taste. Visitors to these aquariums are for the 

 most part, like myself, "out for a holiday." On such occasions we. 

 do not absolutely abjure the idea of receiving instruction from 

 books, but neither are we disposed to expend much labour in the 

 pursuit of knowledge. 



Edward Newman. 



Natural-History Notes from Honolulu. 

 By Gervase F. Mathew, Esq., R.N., F.L.S.* 



Birds of all descriptions are very scarce here. We have now 

 been a fortnight at anchor, and during that period I have not seen 

 a single example of any kind of gull or tern, and only two petrels— 

 a small black fork-tailed species and a large gray white-browed 

 fellow ; also one or two tropic birds flying high overhead. On 

 shore I have noticed three kinds of thick-billed finches, a large 

 gray night heron, and a species of long-tailed dove. The latter is 

 common in gardens and shrubberies in the town itself, and is said 

 to have been introduced j but I am not certain on this point, ^^s 

 the bird is common throughout the country. The nest is a very 

 loose, open affair, composed of twigs, and one I found contained 

 two young. Minah birds, imported from India, have increased 

 * Kindly communicated by his brother, the Eev. Murray A. Mathew. 



