Co Bulletin of Laboratories of Denison University. [vm, xii 



The conditions here, so far as studied, confirm essentially 

 tlVe conjectures to which I was led from a study of the litera- 

 ture (Hefrick. '99, p. 400), and accord so completely witli the 

 morphological interpretation there proposed that we merely re- 

 fer the reader to that passage in the Menidia paper. 



SECTION 3. FUNCTIONS OF TERMINAL BUDS. 



(l) Experiments on Siluroid Fishes. 



The cat fish [Ameiurus nebulosus) upon which this series 

 of experiments was conducted (except a few experiments 

 Specifically designated) were hatched in the open at Granville in 

 the spring of 190 1. In October of that same year they were 

 ta-ken to the laboratory and kept through the following winter 

 in tanks. Microscopic examination of the skin and barblets 

 shows Jhat their skin and cutaneous sense organs at this age are 

 practically in the adult condition. During the winter they were 

 fed on various kinds of meat chopped fine, sometimes cooked, 

 but usually raw. 



In one small aquarium were kept half a dozen cat fish, 

 several ordinary "shiners" [Notropis sp.') and some small 

 ♦'.spotted suckers" {^Minytreina melanops Raf.). Casual ob- 

 servations made during the winter while feeding showed that 

 the shiners use the eyes chiefly in capturing their food. A bit 

 of meat dropped into the water will usually be seized instantly 

 and devoured before it has time sink to the bottom of the tank. 

 After it has fallen to the bottom it is apt to be long overlooked 

 unless the fish happens upon it in its aimless wanderings or un- 

 less its attention is called to it. by the movements of the other 

 fishes which may be eating it. These fishes, when observed, 

 are usually swimming about in the mid-depths of the tank, not 

 resting near the bottom. I have observed the same behavior 

 in Menidia, and other large eyed species. 



'Notropis has very small tuberculum impar and vagal lobes, the latter 

 scarcely larger than in the cod, Menidia and physoclistous fishes generally. 

 From this one may safely infer that cutaneous terminal buds are not as highly 

 developed in this form as in the larger cyprinoids. 



