178 



Aquatic JLite 



man who eats lobster be sensitive or im- 

 patient if his host serves him a not less 

 ungainly horned creature instead. All 

 of these appeal to divers palates in 

 sundry degrees, so why quibble? — John 

 W. Lloyd in "The American Angler." 



Xiphophorus montezumae 



The Montezuma Swordtail, recently 

 illustrated and described as new (mean- 

 ing new to aquarists, not to science) , in a 

 foreign journal, was originally described 

 by Jordan and Snyder in the Bulletin of 

 the United States Fish Commission in 

 1900 (p. 131, fig. 11). 



The body of this species is a trifle 

 deeper than the familiar Xiphophorus 

 helleri, with the dorsal region somewhat 

 elevated, suggesting Platypoecilus. The 

 general color is yellowish-olive, with an 

 indistinct lateral band.- The scales of 

 the upper part of the body have dark 

 edges forming stripes. Occasional indi- 

 viduals have a dark blotch at the base of 

 the caudal fin or a few such marks on 

 the side. Caudal appendage, or "sword," 

 bordered above and below with black, 

 and approximately as long as the body. 

 Length about two and three-fourths 

 inches. ^ 



St. Louis Society 



The Saint Louis Aquarium Society re- 

 cently held a reorganization meeting at 

 which all offices were declared vacant, 

 new officers being elected as follows: 

 Chairman, Paul Hohenstein ; vice-chair- 

 man, James T. Westlake ; treasurer, 

 Frank Moran ; secretary, John Wetzel. 



Enthusiasm for a local public aquar- 

 ium, quiescent for some time past, has 

 been revived. To direct public attention 

 to the movement, twenty-eight large 

 aquaria, stocked with a wide variety of 

 fishes, have been installed in the alcoves 

 of a conservatory in the Missouri Botan- 

 ical gardens. This was made possible 



through the generosity of Mrs. William 

 M. Sloan and Messrs. Westlake, Nugent, 

 Fox and Blair. Rearing and breeding 

 Unks have been installed in another hot- 

 house, which, with occasional presenta- 

 tions of fishes and plants, will serve to 

 maintain the exhibition tanks at all times 

 in attractive condition. — Paul Hohen- 

 stein 



A high school professor, cleaning out 

 his desk in preparation for the new 

 scholastic year, discovered some old ex- 

 amination papers and, after much per- 

 suasion, agreed to make public some of 

 ll e startling theories propounded by his 

 biology students in their entrance exam- 

 inations. A review of the papers reveal- 

 ed the following original facts — or rather 

 discoveries : "The swimmerets of the 

 crayfish are used for walking ; the chelae 

 of crayfish are modified to smile ; fishes' 

 eyes are not visible ; fresh water fish will 

 not live in water ; the parts that make up 

 the blood are the stomach and heart ; all 

 mammals' bodies are partially covered 

 with air ; the nervous system of the frog 

 is a sympathetic one ; the frog has a sense 

 of speech ; the frog takes in water which 

 flows out just behind or near the ear; 

 mimicry is the kind of animal that shoots 

 out poison so as to escape without being 

 hurt, as the skunk." 



The freshwater shrimp is a cunning- 

 creature ; it is quickly adaptive to the re- 

 cmirements of its environment. I once 

 placed a single shrimp in a small bell 

 glass aquarium with a small perch, and, 

 although the fish hunted the shrimp for 

 many months, it never succeeded in cap- 

 turing it. The crustacean became very 

 wily, and eluded capture by its extraor- 

 dinary movements, which must have 

 been to a large extent acquired under 

 the novel conditions. — IV. T. Webster. 



