430 
FOREST AND STREAM^ 
[Nov. 27, 1897. 
THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
{Continued from page i II.) 
Qn entering the Aquarium, and keeping to the right, as 
ejirected one comes to toe large fresh waier tanks throucli 
■who?e clear glass may be seen great carp, dog or mudfish 
{Amia) nearly 2ft. long; tench and golden ide, from Europe; 
small lift, sturgeon in a double tank, i. e., the ordinaiy parti- 
tion is replaced by an arch, giving them a greater rarge; 
large sunfish and calico bass; pike-perch of 18in. and pick- 
erel of 15in.; black baas of 31bs. ; big bullheads, long gars 
in a double tank, brook trout of 21bs. and brown troui twice 
as big, and some small steel-head salmon which were hatched 
somewhere in the East. 
The figures of length and weight are guesses of my own, 
made on a trip entirely alone last week. All the filters are 
now used for fresh water, as none are needed for the clear salt 
water which is taken from wells under the building and 
comes up clear enough. The two big bronz? filters, origin- 
ally intinded for salt water, can easily pass 100,000 gallons 
each per day, and the two smaller ones have a capacity of 
half that amount, and consequently the filters are not over- 
worked. Just at this time, when eels are migrating down 
stream, they have somehow passed a defective strainer and 
the pumps, and got into the pipes. Mr. Blackett, the en- 
gineer, has taken thirty-two good-sized ones out of the 
pumps since Oct. 28, six being found on the morning of my 
list visit. 
Passing to the salt-water tanks on the main floor, we find 
an elegant lot of sub tropical fishes from Bermuda, which 
are rich in color, curious in form, and hold admiring crowds 
in front of them aiJ day. There are the bright red tquirrel- 
fish, nearly a foot long, with enormous black eyes and a 
long, slim tail ended by a deeply-forked caudal fin. Anglers 
will please note the distinction between the tail of a fish and 
the fin which terminates it, for they usually miscall the fin 
the tail. If I was a real, simon pure scientific man, I would 
not even say "tail" for the fleshy end of the fish, but would 
call it, as the scientists do, "the caudal peduncle." It sounds 
nice, but every fisherman has not met the word : so 1 j a&t say 
"tail," laking care to use it correctly, as distinguished from 
the tail fin. 
Then come the grunts, a variety of them, some in striped 
and others in spotted suits; but all grunts just the same. 
Then there are queerly marked hinds, and an elegant amber- 
fish, elegant both in form and in delicate tints; and the 
handiomo snappers— truly these Bermudans with odd names 
are beautiful to look upon. But stop! Here is a tank con- 
taining an angelfish in blue and gold, always a rich com- 
bination, and its flattened sides are resplendent, while the 
rays of its long dorsal and anal fins float behind almost to 
the extremity of the fin by which its course is directed. One 
cannot help asking: What is the use of this gorgeous col- 
oriog and these long, streaming fins? Is the coJor protective 
among the brilliant sea weeds, corals and anemones which 
abound in the translucent waters of the Gulf Stream, or has 
it mereiv to do with sexual selection ? Do the graceful, 
flowing fins play a part in such a selection, or do they act as 
centerboards or as auxiliary rudders? The general public 
does not bother with such speculations; it looks for the name 
first, and then says: "That's an angelfish, Marier, an' he's 
pooty, too; queer name for him, ain't it?" 
Then the eye is caught by a dozen clean-cut, wide-awake 
fish about the size and shape of a man's hand, minus the 
Ihumb, with several vertical bars in black upon their tides, 
and the label beneath says: "Sergeant Major." They are 
certainly trim and soldier-like, neat, but not gaudy, and as I 
look upon them and consider the fitness of the name, I won- 
der that the British earrison at Bermuda never named some 
of the more showy fish the "Drum Mdjir," for that official 
is usually the most gorgeous of human beings, and the 
colonel of the regiment never compares with him in either 
dress or carriage. 
There is a poverty of names among the fishes called spot- 
snapper, red-snapper, and others who are jast plain snapper 
without any dislinctive appellation, until we reach the man- 
grove snapper, surely the early Bermudans were somewhat 
deficient in imagination, not holly so, as in the next tank 
we meet the surgeon, a small, compressed fish of plain ex- 
then these fishes with great, high foreheads should, during 
all the centuries past and g'"'ne, have ruled the seas, but 
they are poor, weak things compared with the shark and 
the blui fish, and, while not the "fittest," they have somehow 
survived. 
Ponderous g'-oupers look out at you from another tank; 
their slanting stripes on a buff ground seem to follow no 
regular pattern, but yet to be similar enough to be nearly uni- 
form They would probably pull the scales down to the 
151b majk and suggest an excellent boiled fish dinner to the 
housewife, and she would make no mistake in selecting 
them. With the hog fish we are about to take our leave of 
THE EEMORA. 
SPIDER CRABS. 
terior which carries two sharp tony lancets on each side of 
its "caudal peduncle," which to the observant eye needs no 
label: "Handle with care," but the public gazes at the fish, 
wonders at the name, dees not see the fleams and passes on. 
A fish must have a name, and given a fifh and a name they 
are satisfied; its structure, habits, food and gergrsphical 
range are not thcu^ht of nor oared about. The ekUr Aeas- 
siz used lo say to students: ' Never mind the name of a fish, 
first find out its characters and its relation to other forms, 
the name is of minor importance." Perhaps the quotation 
is not exact, but it is nearly so. I've seen crowds at Black- 
fora's on tront-opening day. gazing at some unusual fish and 
then departing entirely satisfied with a name. 
On one occasion Iwas examining- that beast which is 
variously called "angler," 'gooseflsh." etc , which is corn- 
mon in Long Island Sound, is 
all mouth and stumach, and 
is said to be able lo swallow 
a wild goose, and to entice 
fishes to its maw by lying on 
the bottom and waving a liftle 
filament on a dorsal or occipital 
spine over its mouth to at- 
tract fishes. The crowd want- 
ed to know about the big- 
headed monster, and Mr. 
Blackford was not near. 
Temptation in its most attrac- 
tive form appeared; "This," 
said 1, "is a Japanese fi>b, 
which is haled by the farm- 
ers; it leaves the water at night 
and devours young sheep and 
goats. It avoids older animals 
because of the danger of their 
horns piercing the stomach. 
This appetite is entirely con- 
fined to the spring of the year, 
but in eunmer it rango the 
pastures on moonlight nights 
and milks the cows; see wh&t 
a mouth it has for milk ; ii en- 
Ttlopes the entire udder and 
takes the last drop." I was 
about to tell more to this admir- 
ing audience when a gentleman 
tapped me on the shoulder and 
said: "I have feen this fish in 
Japan climbing fruit, tiees in 
the night and destroying or- 
chards." A look showed the 
face of my old fiiend Francis 
Eadicott, but we met as 
strangers until the crowd had 
ebscrted mi c'q fish lore and 
departed. This incMenl shows 
how our publ e schools give 
the average man a little bit of 
natural history. 
The silver moonfiah is not a 
bit like the mooofish from 
sub tropical waters which 
come to New York marluts 
and are excellent tuble fi-b; it 
is one of those fla tett of fishes 
which swim bdly down^ as 
distinguished from those flat 
fiihes like the halibut, tunny, 
fluke, flounder, etc , which lie 
upon one side, to which the 
local names of "shnemaker," 
"blunt-head shiner,"' tic, are 
applied. If there is anything 
in phrenology, which 1 deny, 
the Bermuda fishes, whose tanks are furnished with heating 
pipes to keep the water at a temperature of 08° Fahr. all the 
year round, when we come to a met curious form of fish 
life, sometning so outside of our ideas of fish construction 
that it is worth half an hour to observe it. 
The label on the tank says: "Trunkfish." Anglers all 
know that the abominable thing turned out by tackle dealers 
and called a "trunk rod" is cut up into small joints in order 
to be packed into a trunk for transportation, but is useless 
for any other purpose. The sponsor of the trurkfish bad no 
such idea in view, but he struck a curio which was all trunk 
and he named it. Head on to the spectator the trunkfish 
suggests a joke on the part of Dame Naiuie; the fisli is iri- 
aneular. about 4in. broad on its belly and taperins to a point 
on its back, like a beech-nut viewed in profile. Then it has 
a little round mouth, a vtry funny esprestion in its eyes and 
face which at once attracts attention and provokes hilarity. 
But wait until the fish turns its broadside to the glass and 
then you will see where the name fits this curious specimen 
from Nature's workshop. The profile recedes from front to 
rear; the sloping sides are armor plated like a modern war- 
ship, and the plates are as haid and unyielding as those on 
the shell of a tortoise. There is no flexibility of vertebrae 
such as reaches its culmination in the cel. The fish cannot 
move its trunk in any manner, and here we see the appropri- 
ateness of the name. Through necessaiy places in its armor 
are embrasures through which project pectoral, anal, dorsal 
and caudal fins whicb, with labor that seems painfully ap- 
parent, this fish forges slowly along on its way, fearfully 
handicapped, it seems to us, but who can doubt that it ful- 
fills its mission in the waters? 
Passing on to our northern marine fii-hes, we find the scup 
orporgie; the spot, or L--ifayetie; the lautog, or blackfish; 
the striped bass, or rockfish; sea bass, great codfish, and 
many minor and familiar forms Then we come to a great 
81b. "brown trout and a large landlcckt d salmon, both'kept 
in salt-water for ibe puipose of destroying any fungus that 
might have developed either in transportation, or by abra- 
sions received in the tank. 
The clowns in an aquarium show are the crabs, and of 
crabs there is a great number of species. The best known crab 
is the bine crab, ar peariug in the markets in summer as the 
"soft shelled crab," at about 60 cents per dr zen, or boiled as 
"hard crabs" at one-fourth that price. The "rock crabs" 
never come to market except in the soft slate in winter, 
when Ihe others are not to be had Few who watch the 
crab tank ever notice that of the ten ligs provided for the 
locomotion of crab^<, the blm^ crab and the lady crab are the 
only two which have the last pair of legs modified into pad- 
d'es to swim with; all others have a single finger on their 
hindfeet. 
But stop and notice these pugnacious crustaceans. There's 
a "boiseioot," so cilied because its underside has the shape 
that suggests its name. It is a remnant of a past age; they 
may call it a horseshoe crab, but the modern crabs oisownit. 
it] iuTu, the odd crustacean which scientists persist in calling 
Limulus polyphenms can turn up its nose, if its nose would 
turn, and point to the fact that it is a cousin to the trilobite, 
and was on earth a hundred centuries before the ancestors of 
our own "Colonial Dames" had evolved the idea of dressing 
for dinner to celebrate the deeds of their ancestors. 
But those crabs! Somewhere in my reading I've met the 
statement that "the funniest thing is a frog." A frog is 
funny because it has a semi human form, but that ends it. 
The crab shows you the nature of man in ougnacity, sdfish- 
ness, and also in an apparent sense of humor whicb mani- 
fests itself by teasing or irritating its neighbois. There is 
the edible blue crab purposely tappirg a hermit crab on the 
claws to make it draw its head in. And the hermits! I 
could fill a page of Forest and Stream with their peculiar- 
ities and n3t half tell them, so we will just give them a pass- 
ing notice in order that the visitor will not miss these inter- 
esting little fellows, for really it is the small life in an 
aquarium which is of real interest; but the general public 
