482 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



ENTRANCE, BERMUDA AQUARIUM. 

 Photograph by C. H. Townsend. 



With the completion of the tanks across the 

 northern section, the Aquarium will have about 

 thirty tanks, affording space for a considerable 

 variety of fishes and invertebrates. The species 

 at present on exhibition are in general the same 

 tropical forms usually to be seen at the New 

 York Aquarium. In fact the tropical fishes now 

 in New York were secured through the co-opera- 

 tion of the Bermuda Aquarium, a convenient ar- 

 rangement as it enables us to get fishes that have 

 been "seasoned" in the tanks at Bermuda. 



A tank of large and showy sea anemones is 

 one of its attractions, which it may not be easy 

 to repeat in the New York Aquarium, owing to 

 the difficulty of transporting the specimens with- 

 out injury. 



It contains several species, among which are 

 the gill-bearing anemone, (Lebrunea danae), 

 about eighteen inches in diameter which is of a 

 brownish color; the pink-tipped anemone, {Con- 

 tli/l/ictis gigantea), which varies greatly in tint, 

 often yellowish or white with purple-tipped ten- 

 tacles and spreads out a foot or more ; the little 

 red anemone, {Actinia Bermudensis) . and the 

 white-specked anemone, (Aiptasia tageter), a 

 flat species with short tentacles. Most of these 

 are shown in the accompanying photograph. 



Another picture shows the octopus tank at the 

 Bermuda Aquarium. Additional specimens of 

 these will be procured for the New York 

 Aquarium, it is hoped with better results than 

 attended the shipment made last summer when 

 the specimens were all injured during transpor- 

 tation either by fighting or by a too low tem- 

 perature of the water. 



Around the five transverse chambers compos- 

 ing the Aquarium, runs a narrow moat of 

 masonry called the "lighting passage" when the 

 whole structure was a powder magazine. This 

 moat, four feet wide, extends up to the general 

 level of the ground above — about thirty feet — 

 and is open to the sky. In its bottom all the 

 tanks are built the full width of the passage, the 

 glass fronts facing inward through cuttings in 

 the end walls of each transverse chamber. All 

 tanks are four feet wide and four feet deep, the 

 largest being eight feet long, the others four. 



The lighting of the tanks is perfect, since 

 their tops are open to the sky, and the mildness 

 of the climate renders glass roofing for them 

 unnecessary. Rainstorms do not materially af- 

 fect the salinity of the flowing sea water with 

 which all the tanks are supplied. The lighting 

 of the interior will be greatly improved with the 

 completion of the north side tanks. If addi- 

 tional light is desired it can be secured by cut- 

 ting light shafts through the ceiling of the cen- 

 tral passage. 



LIGHTING PASSAGE, BERMUDA AQUARIUM. 



View of the lighting passage looking down on the tanks. The 



grass-covered section to the left is the top of the Aquarium. 



Photograph by C. H. Townsend. 



