Fresh-water Aquarium. 49o9 



elegant shape, lively manners, and the ease with which they are pro- 

 cured, make them very suitable to form part of the live stock, where 

 their pugnacity will not be injurious to their fellow-prisoners: their 

 occupation seemed a perpetual seeking for food, in which they would 

 often scrutinize the ground, head downwards, in an almost perpen- 

 dicular position, the fins and tail quivering — varied by an occasional 

 attack upon a comrade. I sometimes looked at them during the 

 night, and always found them foraging. Contrary to the habit of the 

 newt, they would readily dive after any food thrown in, and would 

 often blow it from the mouth and seize it again with great dexterity. 

 Whether the newt is fairly chargeable with any dark deeds connected 

 with their disappearance, I cannot say, but on one or two occasions I 

 observed it following them about the vessel with great determination, 

 though at a sluggish pace that scarcely threatened their personal 

 safety, added to which it never seized a fly or even a bit of meat 

 without one or two bungling failures. On the other hand, either from 

 instinct or experience, they evidently avoided its approach, while a 

 stickleback I had some years ago would make repeated charges on a 

 dace three times the size of the newt, and drive it about the tub. 

 Specimens of Limnea and Planorbis bred freely ; and in the spawn of 

 the former, which was often attached to the glass, a revolving motion 

 of the embryo could be clearly seen. 



A few species of aquatic Hemiptera were introduced, and some of 

 them were observed to make vigorous dashes towards a candle 

 brought near the vase, following it round the glass. Unexpected 

 forms would sometimes make their appearance, including sundry 

 insect larvae and two species (?) of Cyprides. I once observed two 

 young Hemiptera, not a line long, bred in the vase, each examining a 

 Cypris, turning it over, quitting it and then returning ; the Cyprides 

 remained floating motionless : doubting if they were alive I pushed 

 them under with a wire, and they immediately swam away ; hedgehog- 

 like, they no doubt trusted in their defensive armour, but how the 

 surface-swimming ''mips managed to capture them is somewhat strange. 

 During the autumn several curious objects attached themselves to the 

 glass above the water-level, having much the appearance of minute 

 carraway- seeds, with a small tuft projecting from the side : I watched 

 them for a month or two, but could not ascertain their nature. I may 

 observe, the vase was covered with a circular piece of glass, slightly 

 raised by bits of cork to admit air, but restrain the movements of 

 mollusks of unsettled habits. The insertion or selection of these 

 disjointed observations must be left entirely to your discretion — 



