REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OP INLAND FISHERIES. 81 



Date, the same; time, 11 A. M.; trap, at Hazard's Quarry. 

 20 females, intermediate. 

 8 females, spent. 

 6 males, spent. 

 6 males, spent. 



Food: The whole food supply of this fish is obtained by filtering out from 

 the surface stratum of water the organic life there suspended. The 

 arrangement of the gill rakers forms a very effective filter of the water 

 which the fish takes in by swimming actively in circles through the 

 water with wide-open mouth and expanded gill-covers. The stomach 

 generally appears comparatively empty, but usually has a small quantity 

 of what appears to be a dark greenish or brownish mud, with a variable 

 quantity of copepods and small Crustacea intermixed. This may be 

 demonstrated by observing the habits of the living fish, by the study of 

 the gill rakers, and by collecting on a filter the organic matter suspended 

 in a given quantity of surface water and by comparing the matter thus 

 filtered out with the stomach contents of the menhaden. The following 

 animals have been found: a few annelids, a few rotifers, the smaller 

 Crustacea, like Gammarus and young shrimp, Zoea larva, Nawplius 

 larva, copepods. But the great majority of organisms were Gleno- 

 dinium, Perdinium, Infusoria, and unicellular plants like diatoms, algal 

 swarm spores, and bacterial masses. (On the Food of the Menhaden, by 

 J. H. Peck, Ph. D., Bull. U. S. Fish Commission, 1893, 113.) 



Rate of Growth : Adults are the large fish fifteen to eighteen inches in length . 

 Schools of fishes from two to five inches long arriving at New England in 

 midsummer are probably hatched from spawn of the previous fall and 

 spring. The seven to ten-inch fishes are two years old . The following speci- 

 mens have been taken at Wickford : August 14, 1906, Sauga Point, seine, 

 four specimens one inch; August 8, 1906, Mill Cove, with hoop net and 

 lantern, at night, many specimens 1 to 1^ inches (26 to 32 mm.) ; August 

 8, 1906, Point Wharf, seine, three specimens one inch; July 25, 1908, 

 seine, 37 mm.; August 10, 1908, seine, 37 mm; August 13, 1909, seine, 

 CorneHus Island, 42 mm., 40 mm., 37 mm., 41 mm. Bean gives the 

 following measurements of young taken at Great South Bay, Long 

 Island: July 24th, specimens 2f inches; August 8th, 3f to 4^ inches; 

 August 21st, 3i to 4^ inches; August 23rd, b\ inches; September 14th, 

 5^ to of inches. , 



11 



