34 UNUTILIZED FISHES. 



I'( >SSIBLE DESTRUCTIYEXESS. 



It will be observed that enormous numbers of small crustaceans, 

 principally sand fleas (Amphipoda) and the prawn (Palamionetes), 

 go to make up the dinner's food supply. Many molluscs are eaten 

 also, the gasteropods (Bulla and Odostomia) and the pelecypods 

 (Mytilus, Pecten, Nucula, and Solenomya) being identified. The 

 column headed " Fish, species undetermined " most likely represents 

 flesh picked from dead bodies of fishes, since it was invariably in 

 pieces, with nothing to indicate that a whole fish had been swal- 

 lowed. Furthermore, dinners in the Eel Pond and about the Eev- 

 enue Wharf at Woods Hole were often seen feeding upon dead fish 

 and refuse matter lying on the bottom. This is in support of Dr. 

 Goode's statement that " they are among the most important scav- 

 engers of our harbors." Thus the dinner is a useful fish. The 

 column headed " Teleost eggs," however, suggests that the dinner 

 may also do evil. If the alimentary canals of 4 per cent of the din- 

 ners contain the eggs of fishes during the months of July and August, 

 when very few fish are spawning, the question arises, how many 

 would be found containing fish spawn in May and June, when many 

 valuable food fishes are spawning? And since the dinner also feeds 

 largely upon sand fleas, prawns, and other small crustaceans, is there 

 not ground for suspicion that many young lobsters fall victims to it ? 

 Only a careful study of the dinner's food supply in various locali- 

 ties during May and June will give an adequate answer to these 

 queries. Certainly, during the months of July and August the din- 

 ner, as here shown, is not a destructive fish, but rather a useful har- 

 bor scavenger. 



THE TOADFISH. 



GENERAL APPEARANCE, ABUNDANCE, AND HABITS. 



The toadfish (Opsanus tan) varies from several to 16 inches in 

 length. It has a robust body with a slimy, scaleless surface and a 

 large broad head, bearing a wide, capacious mouth. The general 

 color is a dusky olive, the sides being marked with indistinct blackish 

 liars, and the whole body being sometimes spotted with yellow or 

 whitish. In appearance it somewhat resembles a toad, and this fact 

 gives it its name. It is quite common from Cape Cod to Cuba. On 

 the lower Potomac Eiver, Maryland, Smith (1892) reports it 

 " exceedingly numerous, especially on the oyster beds in shallow 

 water." Shoal water, which is well grown up with eel grass (Zos- 

 tera marina) and where there are plenty of large stones and empty 

 tomato cans, is the ideal place for the toadfish, furnishing it pro- 

 tection and abundance of food. The eggs are laid in some empty 

 tin can or under a rock and guarded by the parent until the young 



