THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 9 
Victorians, but which also prove of great value to the student who 
wants to study the habits of beasts, birds, and reptiles. However 
skilful a taxidermist may be, he can never give to his skins the 
subtle and mysterious quiver of life, so that the student who wants 
to understand life and its history seeks to learn from living objects, 
and the gardens of the Acclimatisation Society meet a felt need. 
The wealth of our city in this direction has been added to 
by the opening of the aquarium in the Exhibition Building. It 
is true that at present but few species have been secured, and 
that whole classes of marine fauna, such as the Actinozoa, that 
make some of the tanks at Brighton, England, gay as tulip-beds, 
are conspicuous by their absence, yet enough has been done, and 
well done, to show what the possibilities are, and doubtless the 
management, which has made so good a beginning, will not rest till 
the icthyologist finds, not only something to amuse, but oppor- 
tunity for grave study. The names of the inhabitants are well and 
conveniently set out on the tanks ; but, for the sake of the many 
who have no knowledge at all of fish, it would be well, in cases 
where more than one species are in the same tank, to give a 
description, brief but clear, so as clearly to indicate which is which. 
It is amusing to listen for a little while at one of such tanks, and 
note the strange guesses made, and the stranger reasons given for 
the belief entertained. 
We have four museums, all of which demand attention, and 
render aid to the student of natural history, and should enable the 
collector to name most of his finds, and so to put him in the way 
of studyiug correctly life histories. In this way home collections 
will be more than pretty toys, and the aim of our club and the 
subject of our paper will begin to be realised—the domestication of 
natural science. 
Of our National Museum, for its large collection and the admir- 
able way in which the taxidermist has arranged many of the groups 
of birds and animals, we have a just right to be proud. Having 
visited many of the natural history museums both at home 
and on the Continent, our own, I ean safely say, in many respects, 
contrasts most favourably with these, in some, carries off the palm for 
excellency. But there is here yet much to be desired, and a 
deputation from our Club waited on the trustees of the Library and 
Museums for the purpose of pointing out to them some require. 
meuts. I may mention them here :— 
Ist. The first great need is more room. ‘Treasures are there, but 
they cannot be found. Entomolgy isa favourite department of science 
in this colony, and the collections of insects are numerous. Some 
enthusiast, proud of his gatherings, makes his way to the National 
Museum to identity his species. He looks, and often looks in vain. 
A few cases—many obsolete names—and yet the museum is rich 
