COD. • 55 



caught with some baits in greater abundance than with others, 

 but there are animals likely to be found in its stomach, w^hile 

 there are others which it is in vain to look for; which still 

 are of common occurrence in other fishes of the same family 

 which also gather their food from the ground. In addition to 

 several sorts of bivalve shells, and one or two species of 

 aphrodite, stones are fovmd, of no small size, that have been 

 swallowed because of the encrusting lepralia or corallines that 

 covered them; and when the latter have been digested, the 

 stones are probably rejected from the stomach. In one instance 

 six Picked Dogfishes, each nine inches in length, were found 

 in the stomach of a Cod; and the following list of crustacean 

 animals (crab and lobster kind,) in the stomach of these fishes, 

 which w^ere taken in the west portion of the British Channel, 

 Avill shew the strong preference which the Cod manifests for 

 that sort of food ; of which also, we may add, their digestion 

 is so powerful and speedy, that, in a short time after being 

 swallowed, the hard and brittle crust of the crabs is made so 

 soft by the action of the gastric juice, that their legs may be 

 twisted round the finsfer. 



'O' 



Crabs. — Stenorynchus phalangium, Acliseus Cranchii, Inachus Dorset- 

 tensis, I. dorynchus, I. leptochirus, Hjas coarctatus, Eurvnome aspera, 

 Xantho tubercalata, Cancer pagurus Porfcunus corrugatns, P. arcuatus, P. 

 marmoreus, P. pnsillus, P. longipes, Gonnplax angulatus, Atelecyclus 

 heterodon, Corystes cassivelaunus, Pagurus Bernhardus. 



Long-tailed Crustaceans, Lobster hind. — Galathsea squamifera, G. strigosa, 

 G. dispersa, G. Andrewsii, Muni da Roudeletii, Gebia stellata, G. deltura, 

 Nika edulis, N. Coucliii, Squilla Desmarestii, Alpheus ruber, Scyllarus 

 arctus. 



In this enumeration the notes of Mr. W. Laughrin, A.L.S., 

 are united with my own; and of these species the Scyllarus 

 arctus offered only one example, which is noAV deposited in 

 the British Museum; but of the Munkla Roudeletii, which is 

 usually considered as not a common species, there has been 

 found not only numerous specimens, but these have often been 

 of remarkable size. The longest leg of an example described 

 by Mr. Bell in his beautiful Natural History of this tribe 

 measured six inches, but I have found the same part to 

 measure nine inches, with the antennae of the same length as 

 the leg. We find Cods which have been rioting on this 

 crustacean food to be in good condition for the table; but I 



