Page:The Book of the Aquarium and Water Cabinet.djvu/52

42 is met with occasionally in Wiltshire, in the Trent, near Nottingham, and in some of the tributaries of the Cam. Mr. Yarrell describes it; but as I have not yet had the good fortune to possess a living specimen, I can only refer to it casually.

C. cephalus.—The chub is a good aquarium fish. It is shy, but grows familiar under good treatment. Insects sooner attract it than any other food. Mr. Jesse says, that those in his vivarium throw off all reserve at the sight of a cockchafer, which they devour with eagerness.

Among the Acanthopterygii, or the spiny-finned fishes of Cuvier’s arrangement, the only one suited to the fresh-water tank, is the noble perch, Percidæ. These are bold and dignified, and their decisive markings make them attractive in a general collection. They require plenty of room, or they soon show signs of exhaustion; and, under the best of circumstances, cannot be pronounced a hardy fish in confinement. They are capricious. I have had healthy specimens, taken by net, die off in a week; and weakly ones, taken by the hook, with portions of the lower jaw torn away, recover, and live for a year, after the ragged portions had been removed by scissors.

Gasterosteus needs a word or two. The sticklebacks are all pretty and interesting fish, plentiftdly found on the sea-coast, and in brooks and ponds all over the country. The species most frequently met with are G. semiarmatus, the half-armed stickleback, and G. pungitius, the ten-spined, but G. brachycentrus (short-spined), and G. spinulosus (four-spined), are rare.

Aquarian amateurs seem a little divided about the policy of keeping these in tanks. I can only advise the