ch had been taken to drink in the pond. They
have been known to bite at swans and geese, and altogether Jack Pike is
a most voracious creature. It may be assumed also that it is unsociable,
for it generally swims about by itself, and not in shoals or in
companies like other fishes.

[Illustration: IN THE ORCHARD. "_AN APPLE SONG_" (_p. 170_).]

Among other inmates of this house which call for mention are carp,
gobies, dace, roach, bullhead, gurnard, mullet, basse, and conger-eels.
They lead a monotonous sort of life, swimming to and fro in their tanks,
in a wearisome way. But their graceful movements and curious colours are
worth notice. The conger-eels are comparatively small specimens. Those
in the deep sea sometimes attain a gigantic size. They are able to use
their tail as a hand, and have been known by means of it to seize the
gunwale of the boat in which they were imprisoned and jump into the sea.

[Illustration: THE MARINE BULLHEAD.]

One of the quaintest and most interesting inmates of the house, however,
is not a fish but an amphibian. There are two groups of amphibians, one
called _tailless_--to which frogs and toads belong--and the other
_tailed_, of which the newt and the axolotl are members. The Zoological
Society are fortunate enough to possess specimens of both the black and
white axolotl. This creature, which is a native of Mexico, has a strange
life-history not unlike that of the frog. It has a sort of tadpole stage
of existence, in which it is furnished with a collar of gills and lives
in the water. After a while it loses its gills, and its tail and legs
grow much less fish-like. There is a kind of lizard look about its
permanent form. In the first period of its history it is styled
_axolotl_; in the final period it becomes known as _amblystome_. They
say its flesh is esteemed a delicacy in Mexico.

Visitors seem to regard the anemones--the "most brilliant of living
flower gardens," as Charles Kingsley called them--as useful in the way
of ornament, and pass their tanks without paying further heed to them.
This is not the case with respect to the diving birds, which are beyond
all question the centre of attraction in the fish-house. The birds
comprise a darter, a cormorant, a guillemot, and a penguin. The
first-named is seldom seen in this country. It is a largish bird with
webbed feet, long thin neck, and spear-like bill. When swimming in the
water with its body entirely submerged, it looks not unl