ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



937 



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TRUNKFISH 

 The body is encased in an armor of bony plates. 



and instruction, but recently the idea seems to 

 have taken hold in a number of centers. For 

 many years New York City stood alone in this 

 respect among the cities of the United States, 

 although its aquarium has continually demon- 

 strated the great popularity of such institutions 

 from its opening day in December, 1896. 



The Detroit Aquarium was opened to the 

 public in 1904, and although it is rather inac- 

 cessibly situated on Belle Isle, several miles 

 from the city, the attendance for the past year 

 exceeded the million mark. This aquarium, 

 located nearly eight hundred miles from the sea, 

 nevertheless maintains a fine collection of marine 

 fishes by means of a storage system and has 

 thoroughly demonstrated the practicability of 

 the inland salt-water exhibition. 



In Philadelphia a temporary aquarium was 

 opened in Fairmount Park on November 25th, 

 1911, in one of the old water-works buildings. 

 Although possessing but nineteen tanks, in which 

 only fresh-water fishes are exhibited, this aqua- 

 rium has thoroughly justified its existence, and 

 in the ten months from the time of its opening 

 to October 1st, 1912, two hundred and sixty-six 

 thousand three hundred and thirty-eight visitors 

 viewed the exhibitions. A salt-water aquarium 

 one hundred feet by fifty feet is in process of 



construction, with provision for thirty tanks, 

 and will be occupied before the end of the year. 

 Mr. W. E. Meehan, formerly State Commis- 

 sioner of Fisheries of Pennsylvania, is the 

 superintendent. 



At Boston a new city aquarium has just been 

 completed and will be opened to the public 

 within a few weeks. Provision has been made 

 for both salt and fresh-water exhibitions. Mr. 

 L. L. Mowbray, formerly in charge of the 

 Bermuda Aquarium, has been made superin- 

 tendent of the Boston Aquarium, and Mr. A. O. 

 Featherstone, for more than eleven years an 

 employee of the New York Aquarium, has 

 accepted an advanced position in the Boston 

 institution. 



Key West Fishes. — An unusually fine lot of 

 fishes arrived at the Aquarium on October 9th 

 from Key West. Altogether there were three 

 hundred and fourteen specimens of fishes, repre- 

 senting forty-three species, besides conches and 

 starfish. The following list will show the great 

 variety of forms represented in the collection : 

 Nassau, red, yellow-fin and black groupers ; 

 mutton-fish ; snook ; margate ; black, blue and 

 queen angel-fishes ; spadefish ; spot and gray 



