DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL NOTES ON THE SPECIES 



309 



moderate depths of the Patagonian shelf, which gives a much sUghter depth gradient than the habitat 

 of the better known species, until the edge is reached. The few echinoderms, etc., were, moreover, 

 recorded in autumn, when the fish feed ravenously upon whatever comes their way. 



Table 27. Feeding of Merluccius hubbsi 



* Doubtless mainly Parathemisto. 



Hints of some interesting seasonal changes in dietary may be gathered from Table 27, although the 

 data are not quantitative. Squids were obviously an important food in summer and especially in 

 autumn, but were rarely recorded in winter-caught hake. Of the crustacean constituents, chiefly 

 important to the smaller hake, Munida were eaten largely in summer, when there were no records of 

 euphausians in the stomachs. In autumn there was still some Munida, considerable quantities of 

 euphausians and many hyperid amphipods. (There is little doubt that nearly all of these were Para- 

 themisto gaudichaudii, a very common species over most of the southern ocean, but I give the categories 

 as stated in the original records.) In winter euphausians were the most frequently recorded food, and 

 few other Crustacea were present. It is probably significant that the widest variety of food was re- 

 corded in autumn, when the hake were feeding intensively after spawning. 



The relative importance of the different constituents of the food of Merluccius hubbsi cannot be 



