THE HERRING AND ITS ALLIES. 389 



in Milford, Conn., captured in 1870, 8,800,000 ; in 1S71, 8,000,000; in 

 1S72, 10,000,000 j in 1873, 12,000,000. In 1S77 three sloops from New 

 London seined 13,000,000. In 1877, an unprofitable year, the Pemaquid Oil 

 Company took 20,000,000, and the town of Booth Bay alone 50,000,000. 

 There is no evidence whatever of any decrease in their numbers, though 

 there can be in the nature of the case absolutely no data for comparison 

 of their abundance in successive years. Since spawning Menhaden are 

 never taken in the nets, no one can reasonably predict a decrease in the 

 future. 



1 



The nature of their food has been closely investigated. Hundreds of 

 specimens have been dissected, and every stomach examined by me has 

 been found full of dark greenish or brownish mud or silt, such as occurs 

 near the mouths of rivers and on the bottoms of still bays and estuaries. 

 When this mud is allowed to stand for a time in clear water, this becomes 

 slightly tinged with green, indicating the presence of chlorophyl, perhaps 

 derived from the algae, so common on muddy bottoms. In addition to 

 particles of fine mud the microscope reveals a few common forms of 

 diatoms. 



There are no teeth in the mouth of the Menhaden, their place being 

 supplied by about fifteen hundred thread-like bristles, from one-third to 

 three-quarters of an inch long, which are attached to the gill-arches, and 

 may be so adjusted as to form a very effective strainer. The stomach is 

 globular, pear-shaped, with thick, muscular walls, resembling the gizzard 

 of a fowl, while the length of the coiled intestine is five or six times that 

 of the body of the fish. The plain inference from these facts, taken in 

 connection with what is known of the habits of the Menhaden, seems to 

 be that their food consists in large part of the sediment, containing much 

 organic matter, which gathers upon the bottoms of still, protected bays, 

 and also of the vegetation that grows in such localities. They also, as 

 was demonstrated by Mr. Rathbun in 1880, feed very extensively upon the 

 minute crustaceans, Copepoda, Sec, which are found in great quantities 

 swimming near the surface in the summer months all along our coast. 



Their rapid increase in size and fatness, which commences as soon as 

 they approach our shores, indicates that they find an abundant supply of 

 some kind of food. The oil manufacturers report that in the spring a bar- 

 rel of fish often yields less than three quarts of oil, while late in the fall 

 it is not uncommon to obtain five or six gallons. 



