Art. VI.] Herrick, Taste in Fishes. 79 



In a tank containing two hake which were very hungry I 

 placed a piece of fresh clam meat concealed between two small, 

 old and thoroughly clean clam shells which had been lying for 

 some time in the bottom of the tank. The fishes did not seem 

 to smell the meat at a distance and so be attracted to the spot 

 where the shells were, but if in the course of their aimless 

 movements along the bottom of the tank they passed over the 

 shells they generally stopped a moment, smelled around and 

 then passed on, first feeling over the whole area of the shell 

 with their free fins. As time passed, this reaction became less 

 clear until after some fifteen minutes they generally passed over 

 the shells without paying any attention. They never found the 

 meat. This experiment was many times repeated with the 

 same result. The sense of smell can play no strong part in 

 the locating of their food. It may play some small part, 

 though I incline to believe that the interest which the fishes 

 show in the concealed bait is excited by a vague stimulus to the 

 terminal buds on the fins. Compare the experiments made 

 after the extirpation of the olfactory organs in the tom cod, de- 

 scribed below. 



The tom cod {Microgadiis tomcod). These fishes are much 

 less active than the hake, spending most of the time lying 

 quietly on the bottom of their tank. They have not so keen 

 sight as the hake and pollock, but still obtain much of their 

 food by this sense, catching food thrown in before it reaches 

 the bottom. They do not catch live prawns in captivity so 

 well as the hake do, yet prawns and other active crustaceans 

 are found in the stomachs of specimens taken with the seine. 

 The dorsal fin lacks the free filamentous rays and is not especi- 

 ally sensitive to gustatory stimuli. The ventral fins are, how- 

 however, very efficient in locating sapid substances lying on 

 the bottom ; they are shorter than those of the hake and are not 

 thrust forward, but incline slightly backward. Like the hake, 

 the tom cods spend much time in slowly exploring the bottom, 

 though they assume a very different position, with the head di- 

 rected downward at an angle of some 30° to 45° with the bot- 

 tom, so that the tips of the barblet and ventral fins just drag 



