THE PUBLIC AQUARIUM 



293 



given to the cheaper kinds of fish when the supply of such is abun- 

 dant and when they are of such a character that they can be cut and 

 prepared to a(lvanta<2:e. Very little meat is required, but clams are 

 used in gfreat quantities. During- the month of January, 1927* 

 (selecting from the food bills at random), the food obtained from 

 the markets consisted of the following : Herring, 2.160 pounds ; 

 clams, 5,200 ; shrimp. 

 39 pounds; bulterfish, ~ ~ 

 25 pounds; beef heart, 

 28 pounds. The cost 

 was $322.53. This is 

 merely the amount of 

 food purchased. Dur- 

 ing the summer months 

 live food is brought in 

 from the adjacent bays 

 and shores by the col- 

 lecting boat, consisting 

 of minnows, shrimps, 

 crabs, mussels, marine 

 worms, small soft clams, 

 and " beach fleas " or 

 amphipods. 



Live food usually is 

 kept on hand in reserve 

 tanks. In s u m m e r, 

 when live food is ob- 

 tained readily, more of 

 it is used. In winter a 

 larger amount of mar- 

 ket food necessarily is 

 consumed. Salt-water 

 minnows, when pro- 

 cured in abundance, are 

 used at the rate of 10 or 

 12 quarts daily and are 

 simply thrown alive 

 into the tanks. Live 

 shrimps are used to about 

 the same extent when 

 available; mussels, 4 or 

 5 bushels a year; small 

 crabs of various kinds, 

 by the hundred. Beach 

 fieas or amphipods (the 

 small crustaceans gen- 

 erally called sand hoppers, of the genus Gammarus) are used in con- 

 siderable quantity. Sometimes the collector secures them by spread- 

 ing a sheet on the beach at night and placing a lantern on it. When 

 a sufficient number have been attracted by the light the sheet is picked 

 up by the corners and the catch spilled into a bucket. More often 

 they are secured by gathering bunches of fine sea moss, in which they 

 hide. 



hiu. 



il.- vShipping- jar, with specimen. The upper. one- 

 third ol' the jar contains pure oxygen 



