PREFACE. 



that whicli I could not ascertain by reading. After not 

 a few failures and disappointments, most of my attempts were 

 successful, and as I began to have more knowledge of these 

 things, I resolved that I would, at some time or other, try 

 to wi'ite such a book as that I wished for so much when I was 

 making my first blunders in aquarium matters. By-and-by, 

 Mr. Upcott Gill was good enough to give me an opportunity 

 of contributing to The Bazaar a series of articles upon the 

 fresh-water aquarium. These articles are now re-published 

 in book form, and so in this way I have kept my resolution 

 and have written my book; but as I finished looking over the 

 "proofs" of its last chapter, I confessed, with not a little 

 mortification, that it fell far short of the book I had hoped 

 to write. However, I shall feel very thankful if I can be the 

 means of saving some keepers of an aquarium from dis- 

 appointment, and many aquatic animals from unnecessary 

 suffering. 



Before or while writing the above-mentioned articles, I read 

 all or portions of the following books, and to the authors I 

 am more or less indebted: 



" Land and Fresh-water Shells," by B. Rimmer, F.L.S. ; 

 " British Beetles," by B. C. Rye ; " Manual of British 

 Beetles," by J. P. Stephens, F.L.S. ; " British "Wild Flowers," 

 by Miss Pratt; "The Aquarium," by J. E. Taylor, Ph.D., 

 F.I.S., &c. ; " The Fresh and Salt-water Aquarium," by Rev. 

 J. G. "Wood, M.A. ; " Lakes and Rivers," by C. O. G. Napier, 

 F.G.S.; "Ponds and Ditches," by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D. ; 

 "Pond Life— Insects," by B. A. Butler, B.A., B.Sc. ; 

 "Popular History of the Aquarium," by G. B. Sowerby, F.L.S.; 

 " The Book of the Aquarium," -by Shirley Hibberd ; " Intro- 

 duction to Entomology," by Kirby and Spence ; " The Natural 

 History of British Fishes," by P. Buckland; "Land and Fresh- 

 water Shells of the British Islands," by J. E. Gray, Ph.D., 

 F.R.S.; "Popular History of British Crustacea," by Adam 

 White; "The Microscope," by Jabez Hogg, M.R.C.S., F.R.M.S.; 

 "The Home Naturalist," by Harland Coultas; "Country "Walks," 

 by the Rev. H. Houghton, M.A. ; " The Badminton Library " 

 — "Fishing," — by H. Chohnondeley PenneU; "L'Aquarium," 



