4856 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1876. 
adding them to his menage. London is not situated so far from a 
prolific whitebait ground as is Manchester, and it would appear 
that Mr. Frank Buckland has already succeeded in bringing speci- 
mens up the Thames to the metropolis alive, although these died 
soon after, for the want of a tank suitable for their reception. The 
precautions requisite for preserving whitebait in health certainly 
exceed those that need be taken in association with many of the 
more ordinary varieties, the food question at Manchester proving 
in the first instance especially vexatious. Herrings, whether old 
or young, are partial to living food, feeding chiefly, in the latter 
instance, on Entomostraca and the larval conditions 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 these whitebait became so accustomed to confinement as to 
readily take their prepared food from the keeper’s hand—a cireum- 
stance which would seem to indicate that young fish, like the young 
of other animals, are more readily susceptible of domestication, 
adult herrings not being known to display an equal amount of con- 
fidence towards those who tend them. The food question being 
settled, another difficulty presented itself, and this time one that 
threatened, sooner or later, to accomplish the extermination of the 
whole shoal. Immediately succeeding their advent, a large number 
of these little fish were found dead each morning at the bottom of 
their tank—a circumstance which at first seemed inexplicable in 
association with their quiet behaviour throughout the day. A night 
inspection, however, happily revealed the cause of their rapid 
destruction. It was then seen that the nocturnal movements of the 
herring, at least in confinement, are altogether distinct from what 
obtain in daylight. In the latter instance these movements are 
very quiet and uniform, the fish swimming round their tank in one 
shoal and one continuous stream. At night, on the contrary, the 
shoal is entirely broken up, each fish taking an independent path 
and darting from one side of the tank to the other with an amount of 
agility scarcely to be anticipated by a mere daylight acquaintance 
