Those indeed are real bird parts, lovingly flattened and pasted down into books.

The ingenuity of man has been excercised for years past to add to the beauty, convenience, and attractiveness of bird houses. One quite pretty cage brought out a few years ago has a fish globe on top of the cage with a hollowed center, thus allowing the bird to come up into the dome, so that by looking through the fish globe it looks as if he were standing on a perch in the center of the water. These cages are not popular, however, as they are quite expensive, and the glass being of such peculiar shape it is liable to crack from variations in temperature. See illustration, page 4.

I’ve been meaning to post this gem for a while, and the release of Bernd Brunner’s new book, The Ocean at Home, an Illustrated History of the Aquarium, gives me the perfect opportunity.

I wonder how many unfortunate Victorian-era canaries met their demise from a wet crash caused by an errant sunbeam. Thankfully, our generation benefits from space age polymer fish containment technology, and the canaries of the future will assuredly be safe from this dreadful fate.

I wonder how much it would cost to have the nice people at CASCO build one of these.

You should be there, too. Really, you shouldn’t pass up a “wild night of amnesia, meth lab explosions, and the internal landscape of Hell’s Half Acre.”

update:
Great reading. I enjoyed watching the audience squirm during Will Baer’s reading of Penny Dreadful. Craig’s reading was so compelling I started wondering when we’ll be treated to some podcasts (hint, hint). He had the entire room pretty well mesmerized throughout the Infamous Chapter 10.

Go check out Mike’s awesome photos of the event.