FRONT VIEW OF TANK NO. 10 (18 FEET LONG), CRYSTAL PALACE AQUARIUM.

FRONT VIEW OF TANK NO. 9 (18 FEET LONG), CRYSTAL PALACE AQUARIUM.

below the floor of the gallery JJJ, and then the two currents converge centrally and fall together into the reservoir at tank 49. A portion of the water, however, is arrested above tank 9, and is by separate pipes conveyed into the rooms H and I, where, after circulating in the tanks 19 to 38, it finds its way to the reservoir below at F2 and G 2. Independently, however, of the simple fall of water from one tank to another in steps of from 3 to 6 inches in height in the series I to 18 (tanks 9 and 10 being 6 feet high, while I and 18 are 3 feet high-all internally), other streams of water, mixed with great quantities of air in minute bubbles, are driven from the main pipe into all the tanks with force. through jets, so that myriads of such bubbles, controlled by stopcocks, are forced in a state of fine division (resembling falling sand, or steam) nearly or quite down to the bottom of each tank, and thus the fluid is charged with as much atmospheric air as it will take up in open vessels. The amount of aëration (which also depends much on the amount of water entering) varies much, according to the dimensions of the tanks. Thus, tank 10 holds 4,000 gallons, and tank I holds 400 gallons, and, as tank 10 has a stream equal to its own bulk running through it once an hour, it necessarily follows that as the same current flows through tank 1 (of only one-tenth the capacity of tank 10) then tank I has a stream equal to its bulk, ten times as often as tank 10, that is to say, once every six minutes, and as these grades of aëration vary in all the tanks, they can be chosen according to the varying requirements of different kinds of animals. There is no intention to change the sea-water, but only to add from time to time a requisite quantity of distilled water to compensate for evaporation, and also to add whatever constituents the animals may deprive the sea-water of. For example, lobsters, crawfish, crabs, oysters, annelides with calcareous tubes, and many other animals, are constantly making new shells or adding to their old ones, and the matter is derived from the sea-water, and must be re-supplied.*

The material used for the pumps, stop-cocks, and jets, and for nearly all the pipes (the exceptions being the stoneware pipes connecting tanks 39 to 60) is vulcanite, or hard india-rubber. This was recommended by Prof. Faraday for the purpose in 1857.

In tanks 1 to 18 the creatures can be viewed only through the plate-glasses forming the fronts of the tanks; but in the twenty tanks of the rooms H and I (Nos. 19 to 38), which are made to contain small specimens, the view is through the surface of the water, as well as through the glasses of the fronts, as in the tablecases of a museum. The shallowness of these tanks, varying in water-capacity from 40 to 270 gallons each, much increases both their aëration and the accessibility of the objects they contain, and the much-shaded position of some of them, e.g., Nos. 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 30, 34, and 36, affords means of maintaining some organisins, both animal and vegetable, needing an unusual amount of darkness. For example, no green alga (Chlorosperms) will grow in the gloom of these tanks, while they are admirably suited for the Rhodosperms (or red algæ) which always flourish best in much obscurity. So, too, no direct sunlight can enter tank 1, and as it contains only sea-anemones, it may be expected that this intentional arrangement will somewhat retard the usual fading of some of the colours of these animals when in aquaria. Tanks 1 to 18 are lighted from a source not seen by spectators in front of the glasses.

In tanks 39 to 60 the view is only through the surface of the water. These twenty-two receptacles, each holding about 300 gallons of sea-water, contain, or are intended to contain, creatures which are at intervals drafted into the show tanks (1 to 38) and, acting as reserves and not for public inspection, they enable large numbers of animals to be purchased when they are to be cheaply and easily got, and thus these store-places in * The sea-water was supplied in casks by Mr, W, Hudson, of Brighton,

part remove the uncertainty of supply, which hitherto has attended inland marine aquaria. They are also used to keep living food, as mussels and shrimps, for the other animals.

For the general supply of the aquarium, the company possesses a large marine pond, in communication with the sea at every tide, and serving as a store, with a resident agent (Mr. C. Rogers), at Plymouth. This pond is capacious enough to furnish many animals, otherwise hard to be got, to all the public aquaria in Europe. The company has another agent (Mr. John Thompson) and store-place, at Southend, Essex; and supplies are obtained also from Weymouth, from Mr. R. T. Smith; from Menai in North Wales, from Mr. E. Edwards; from Tenby, in South Wales, from Mr. W. Jenkins, together with other contributions from North and South Devonshire and the Channel Islands. Notwithstanding all these facilities, however, the difficulty of procuring animals in good health, and of sufficient variety, and of right size, is very great-so great, indeed, on account of periods of excessive heat or cold, or rough weather, that there are probably not more than a dozen or fifteen weeks of any average year (with seldom a couple of weeks consecutively) in which animals can be most advantageously got, and this applies especially to fishes.

The animals at present in the aquarium are the following* --Sea-anemones, fourteen species; tube and other worms, six species; star-fishes, three species; seaurchins, lobsters, crawfish, edible-crabs, spider-crabs, swimming crabs, and various other crabs; prawns, two species; barnacles, oysters, mussels, cockles, and scallops; whelks, periwinkles, dogwinkles, and tops; cuttles, two species; and many fishes, as skate, angel-fish, launce, pipe-fish, lump-fish, and sucking-fish; sole, plaice, cod, whiting-pout, whiting, and rockling; wrasse, four species; goby, three species; blenny, three species; dragonet, gunnel, grey-mullet, sea-bream, sea-scorpion, two species; pogge, gurnard, weever, and basse. All of these have to be fed constantly, many of them hourly, throughout the day, except on Sundays; and as for the seaanemones, of which there are already in the aquarium over 3,000 individuals, everyone of them has a morsel of food proportioned to its size given it at frequent intervals with a pair of wooden forceps, by an attendant whose sole occupation this is, as these flower-like creatures being so very non-locomotive as to be almost absolutely fixed, cannot pursue their food, or in an aquarium obtain it in any other manner, they being deprived of the actual ocean, every wave of which, when the animals are in a state of nature, bringing them nutriment which is arrested by their outspread and waving tentacles.

37. Por

40.

* Marine Animals in the Crystal Palace Aquarium, from August 20 to October 10, 1871.-1. Actinoloba dianthus. 2. Sagartia bellis. 3. Sagartia miniata. 4. Sagartia rosea. 5. Sagartia venusta. 6. Sagartia nivea. 7. Sagartia troglodytes. 8. Sagartia viduata. 9. Sagartia parasitica. 10. Anthea cereus. 11. Actinia mesembryanthemum. 12. Bunodes Ballii. 13. Tealia crassicornis. 14. Cerianthus Lloydii. 15. Uraster rubens. 16. Cribella oculata. 17. Solaster papposa. 18. Sipunculus Bernhardus. 19. Nemertes Borlasii. 20. Terebella conchilega. 21. Sabella reniformis. 22. Sabella unispira. 23. Terebella penicillus. 24. Sabella tubularia 25. Serpula contortuplicata. 26. Serpula triquetra. 27. Spirorbis communis. 28. Gammarus locusta. 29. Palæmon serratus. 30. Palamon squilla. 31. Crangon vulgaris. 32. Homarus marinus. 33. Palinurus quadricornis. 34. Pagurus Bernhardus. 35. Galathea strigosa. 36. Galathea squamifera. cellana platycheles. 38. Pinnotheres pisum. 39. Portunus puber. Portunus depurator. 41. Carcinus Mænas. 42. Pilumnus hirtellus. 43. Xanthis florida. 44. Xanthis rivulosa. 45. Cancer pagurus. 46. Maia Squinado. 47 Hyas araneus. 48. Inachus Dorsettensis. 49. Steno50. Balanus balanoides. rhynchus phalangium. 51. Lepas anatifera. 52. Ascidia mentula. 53. Cardium echinatum. 54. Mytilus edulis. 55. Anomia ephippium. 56 Eolis coronata. 57. Aplysia punctata. Purpura lapillus. 59. Buccinum undatum. 60. Nassa reticulata. Murex erinaceus. 62. Sepiola Rondeletii. 63. Octopus vulgaris. 64. Raia batis. 65. Squatina angelus. 66. Scyllium canicula. 67. Hippocampus brevirostris. 68. Syngnathus acus. 69. Ammodytes lancea. 70. Anguilla acutirostris. 71. Cyclopterus lumpus. 72. Liparis vulgaris. 73. Solea vulgaris. 74. Platessa vulgaris. 75. Motella vulgaris. 76. Merlangus vulgaris. 77. Morrhua vulgaris. 78. Labrus maculatus. 79. Labrus mixtus. 80. Crenilabrus melops. 81. Crenilabrus rupestris. 82. Callionymus lyra. 83. Gobius niger. 84. Gobius unipunctatus. 85. Gobius Ruthensparri. 86. Blennius pholis. 87. Blennius gattorugine. 88. Muranoides guttata. 39. Zoorces viviparus. 90. Mugil capito. 91. Pagellus centrodontus. Tottus bubalis 93. Cottus scorpius. 94. Asphidophorus cataphractus. 95. Criglia hirundo. 96. Labræ lupus.

58.

61.

92.

The food consumed by a very few of the animals now present in the aquarium is vegetable, consisting of green seaweeds (Ulva, Porphyra, Enteromorpha, &c.), but by far the greater number have animal food given them. This consists of shrimps (alive or dead), crabs, mussels, oysters, and fish, but "butcher's meat" they never get. The large amount of organic matter thus continually (from 8 A.M. till 6 P.M. on six days a week) placed in the water, and the correspondingly great quantity of excrementitious matter resulting from it, is nearly all rendered harmless by being decomposed chemically by the oxygenation of the streams of water, and by the growing vegetation, without the use of any filter, and without the water being made turbid. In fact, the circulating system of the water in this aquarium is similar to, and avowedly made on the general model of, the circulating system of the blood of many of the animals which the aquarium itself maintains in life and health. Thus, the steam engine represents a heart, the coals consumed by the boilers are the food, the pipes are the veins and arteries, and the wide spreading air-charged streams of water discharged at the jets are the lungs.

Very few deaths occur, and the condition of the creatures will be further improved when the vegetation will have grown more. There are, however, reasons for supposing that not in any aquarium yet devised can any pelagic animals be permanently kept, and that therefore the bulk of specimens must be littoral creatures. But there are many marine animals and plants, both of the deep sea and the shore, which at present cannot be kept in captivity at all. The reason of this is in some cases known, but with others there is not the smallest clue as to the means to be adopted for their successful maintenance.

In front of tanks 1 to 18 are placed obliquely, and over tanks 19 to 38 are suspended vertically, glazed frames to contain drawings of the animals. These pictures will be numbered to correspond with the numbered descriptive paragraphs of a guide-book now being prepared for the aquarium, so that any animal can be readily found. Although tank No. I contains exclusively sea-anemones, and thus properly commences with the lower animals, yet the classification of the creatures throughout the building is not made with reference to any acknowledged system founded on organisation, but the creatures are, so far as the limits of the place permit, arranged with reference to habits rather than structure, and in such manner that, as much as possible, one animal shall not interfere injuriously with another.

The building is very cool in summer. Thus, during the hottest part of the season just passed through, when the true temperature of the general atmosphere in the shade was 88° F., that of the air in the aquarium was only 68° F., and the sea-water never rose higher than 63° F. For winter, hot-water pipes are arranged to maintain the temperature of the air from 60° F. to 65° F.

The ventilation everywhere is remarkably good, and there is no tank in any of the entire series of sixty, which cannot be brought into free contact, when needed, with the open air.

The amount of daylight can also be very exactly regulated; and as, for the exhibition of the aquarium on winter evenings, it will be necessary to use powerful artificial illumination, some experiments are now being made on the best mode of lighting it, but it is not precisely known what will be the behaviour, in artificial light, of animals a great number of which are more or less nocturnal. Indeed, in an aquarium the difficulty ever is to show animals which endeavour to avoid being seen.

The architect, Mr. C. H. Driver, of Victoria Street (the builders being Messrs. Jackson and Son),* has shown much ingenuity in turning to good account every part of the space placed at his disposal, and in his simplicity of design he has not disobeyed any law of service in con

"Buildings for scientific purposes should be plain and useful above all things, in appearance as in fact."-PROF. RUSKIN,

struction, in any case. Everything is done with a meaning, and with a definite and obvious purpose. Thus, as animals cannot exist with comfort without rock-work in the tanks, it has been plentifully introduced; but whatever picturesqueness of form it possesses, is merely a consequence of its being in the first place useful, and so strictly and severely is this principle carried out, that such rockwork does not project anywhere even an inch above the water's level, instead of being employed, as in most Continental aquaria, that of Berlin in particular, in the spectator's part of the building, where it is not wanted, and where, being perfectly useless, it is therefore ugly, and is merely an expensive excrescence. Everything in the Crystal Palace Aquarium is made to look like what it is, and not like something else, and not to pretend to be some other and more expensive material. Thus, if deal wood for its preservation is necessary to be painted, it is not also grained to look like oak or walnut-wood. Nor is cement squared withi mitation masonry joints, or otherwise treated so as to look like stone. Nor is there any use of sham marble. It was certainly deemed advisable to make the building externally to correspond in general appearance with the arched and other iron framings which compose the Crystal Palace adjoining, and in which the glass of that edifice is set, but even then, this framing on the outside of the aquarium walls is employed usefully to strengthen those walls, which are purposely made insufficiently strong if such framing were absent. And wherever, either outside or inside the place, a little enrichment has been indulged in, it properly consists only in the decoration of construction, and not in the construction of decoration. Systematic economy in this Aquarium is in fact throughout observed in such manner that the largest number and variety of animals may be preserved in the best condition in the smallest space.

The two woodcuts on page 470, each on a scale of half an inch to one foot, represent the pair of largest tanks, Nos. 9 and 10, inhabited by crawfish and other crustaceans, and by wrasse, grey mullet, and other fishes. The front of each tank is composed of three pieces of glass, divided and supported at equal distances from either end by two large vertical mullions of slate and iron, and subdivided by three other and smaller vertical mullions of iron only. These six glasses, each measuring six feet square and one inch thick, are among the heaviest polished plates made in this country, by Messrs. Goslett and Co., and the water pressure on their aggregate surfaces amounts to 46,656 lbs., or nearly twenty-one tons. W. A. LLOYD

THE BIRDS OF THE LESSER ANTILLES* THE HE Lesser West Indian Islands, although mostly belonging to Great Britain and inhabited by a large number of intelligent colonists, and moreover easily accessible from our shores by a regular fortnightly line of packets, have hitherto been strangely neglected as regards their zoology. Of their botany we have an excellent account by Dr. Grisebach, published under the energetic superintendence of the authorities of the Herbarium at

Kew. I am anxious to call the attention of the students of NATURE to what an interesting field here lies available for investigation,-particularly as regards the ornithology of these islands.

The West Indian Islands seem to me to constitute a distinct subdivision of the neo-tropical region, which may be called the Sub-regio Antillensis. This sub-region is divisible into two portions, which correspond to the two usually recognised divisions of the islands into the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The former of these is characterised by the presence of the remarkable mammal-forms Sole* Principally extracted from a paper read before the Zoological S on March 21, 1871.

tional observations, many points having been necessarily left undetermined, and it is much to be regretted that no one seems to have since paid the slightest attention to the subject.

The ornithology of the Greater Antilles is now tolerably well known to us, although specimens from most of the islands are rare in collections and difficult to obtain. The Lesser Antilles, on the other hand, are still very imperfectly investigated as regards their birds, many of them being, so far as I know, still unvisited by any naturalist or collector. There can be no doubt, however, that every one of them is well worthy of being worked at, and that the results to be obtained from a thorough examination of the whole group would be of great importance towards a more complete knowledge of the laws of distribution. To show how slight our acquaintance is with this subject and how much remains to be done, I will mention the principal islands or island-groups in order, and specify what knowledge we have of their ornithology.

1. The Virgin Islands.—Out of these islands we may, I think, assume that we have a fair acquaintance with the birds of St. Thomas, the most frequently visited of the group, and the halting-place of the West Indian mailsteamers. Mr. Riise, who was long resident here, collected and forwarded to Europe many specimens, some of which were described by myself,* and others are spoken of by Prof. Newton, in a letter published in the Ibis for 1860, p. 307. Mr. Riise's series of skins is now, I believe, at Copenhagen. Frequent allusions to the birds of St. Thomas are also made by Messrs. Newton in their memoir of the birds of St. Croix, mentioned below. In the "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," for 1860, p. 374, Mr. Cassin has given an account of a collection of birds made in St. Thomas by Mr. Robert Swift, and presented to the Academy: twentyseven species are enumerated.

Quite at the extreme end of the Virgin Islands, and lying between them and the St. Bartholomew group, is the little islet of Sombrero, "a naked rock about seven-eighths of a mile long, twenty to forty feet above the level of the sea, and from a few rods to about one-third of a mile in width." Although "there is no vegetation whatever in the island over two feet high,” and it would seem to be a most unlikely place for birds, Mr. A. A. Julien, a correspondent of Mr. Lawrence, of New York, succeeded in collecting on it specimens of no less than thirty-five species, the names of which, together, with Mr. Julien's notes thereupon, are recorded by Mr. Lawrence in the eighth volume of the "Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York" (p. 92). The remaining islands of the Virgin group are, I believe, most strictly entitled to their name, so far as ornithology is concerned, for no collector on record has ever polluted their virgin soil. Prof. Newton (Ibis, 1860, p. 307) just alludes to some birds from St. John, in the possession of Mr. Riise.

2. St. Croix.-On the birds of this island we have an excellent article by Messrs. A. and E. Newton, published in the first volume of the Ibis. + This memoir being founded on the collections and personal observations of the distinguished authors themselves, and having been worked up after a careful examination of their specimens in England, and with minute attention to preceding authorities, forms by far the most complete account we possess of the ornithology of any one of the Lesser Antilles. It, however, of course requires to be supplemented by addi

* Ann. N. H.ser. 3, vol. iv. p. 225; and P. Z. S. 1860, p. 314. + Ibis, 1859, pp. 59, 138, 252, and 365.

3. Anguilla, St. Martin, and St. Bartholomew.-Of this group of Islands St. Bartholomew alone has, as far as I know, been explored ornithologically, and that within a very recent period. In the Royal Swedish Academy's by the veteran ornithologist, Prof. Sundevall, on the birds of this island, founded on a collection made by Dr. A. von Goes. The species enumerated are forty-seven in number, amongst which the most interesting perhaps is the Euphonia flavifrons, originally obtained, along with one or two other species, in the latter part of the last century, and figured by Sparrman in his "Museum Carlsonianum," along with several other species from the same island. 4. Barbuda. Of this British island I believe I am correct in saying that nothing whatever is known of its ornithology, or of any other branch of its natural history. 5. St. Christopher and Nevis, to which may be added the adjacent smaller islands St. Eustathius and Saba.— Of these islands also our ornithological knowledge is of the most fragmentary description. Mr. T. J. Cottle was, I believe, formerly resident in Nevis, and sent a few birds thence to the British Museum in 1839. Amongst these were the specimens of the Humming-birds of that island, which are mentioned by Mr. Gould in his well-known work. Of the remainder of this group of islands we know absolutely nothing.

6. Antigua.—Of this fine British island I regret to say nothing whatever is known as regards its ornithology, Amongst the many thousands of American birds that have come under my notice during the past twenty years, I have never seen a single skin from Antigua.

7. Montserrat.-Exactly the same as the foregoing is the case with the British island of Montserrat.

8. Guadaloupe, Deseadea, and Marie-galante.-An excellent French naturalist, Dr. l'Herminier, was for many years resident as physician in the Island of Guadaloupe. Unfortunately, however, he never carried into execution the plan which I believe he contemplated of publishing an account of the birds of that island. He sent a certain number of specimens to Paris and to the late Baron de la Fresnaye, to whom we are indebted for the only article ever published on the birds of Guadaloupe,* or of the adjacent islands.

9. Dominica.-Dominica is one of the few of the Caribbean Islands that has had the advantage of a visit from an active English ornithologist. Although Mr. E. C. Taylor only passed a fortnight in this island in 1863, and had many other matters to attend to, he nevertheless contrived to preserve specimens of many birds of very great interest, of which he has given us an account in one of his articles on the birds of the West Indies, published in the Ibis for 1864 (p. 157). It cannot be supposed, however, that the birds of this wild and beautiful island can have been exhausted in so short a space of time, even by the energetic efforts of our well-known fellow-labourer.

10. Martinique.-This island is one of the few belonging to the Lesser Antilles in which bird-skins are occasionally collected by the residents, and find their way into the hands of the Parisian dealers. There are also a certain number of specimens from Martinique in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes, which I have had an opportunity of examining; but beyond the vague notices given by Vieillot in his "Oiseaux de l'Amérique du Nord," I am not aware of any publication relating specially to the ornithology of this island. Mr. E. C. Taylor passed a fortnight in it in 1863, and has recorded his notes upon the species of birds which he met with in the excellent article which I have mentioned

* Rev. Zool, 1844, p. 167.