24 Part III. — Twenty-eighth Annual Beport 



lY.— ON THE FOOD OF THE HALIBUT, WITH NOTES ON 

 THE FOOD OF SCOEP.ENA, PHY CIS BLENNOIDES, 

 THE GARPIKE AND CHIMERA MO N ST ROSA. By 

 Thomas Scott, LL.D., F.L.S. 



The stomachs of over one thousand specimens of halibut, Hippoglossus 

 vulgaris (Flem.), have been examined during the period from September 

 1909 to June 1910. The sizes of the halibut ranged from 18 inches to 5 

 feet in length. They were captured in various parts of the North Sea and 

 North Atlantic, and landed at the Aberdeen Fishmarket, and I desire to 

 acknowledge my indebtedness to the fish merchants there who so kindly 

 supplied the material for this research, and for the data concerning the sizes 

 of the specimens supplied. 



It has been my experience, as it is the experience of others when engaged 

 in a research of this kind, that even under the most favourable conditions a 

 certain percentage of the fishes examined have either no food in their 

 stomachs, or it is so much broken up and decomposed by the action of the 

 gastric fluid — an action that does not cease till some time after the death of 

 the fish — as to be indistinguishable. 



Of the halibut stomachs examined, about one-third, or nearly 34 per cent., 

 were found to be empty, or the nature of the food could not be determined, 

 which leaves about seven hundred, the contents of which could in some 

 measure at least be identified. 



The Fishes. 



A large proportion of the food observed consisted of Gadoids, chiefly 

 haddocks and whitings; Norway pout (Gadus esmarkii) were also met with 

 on several occasions. On the other hand, codfish and brassies were rarely 

 noticed. Flat fishes, such as long rough dabs, were sometimes obtained, 

 but not very often, and once or twice a lemon sole and witch soles 

 occurred. 



The Crustacea. 



Crustacea were tolerably frequent, especially in the stomachs of the smaller 

 halibut, but they also occurred in those of the larger examples. In the case 

 of some of the larger halibut it was apparent that little efibrt had been 

 exerted to crush the crustaceans found in their stomachs ; specimens, almost 

 complete, of tolerably large crabs like Geryon tridens, Lithodes maia and 

 Munida bamfica, their carapace only being somewhat softened by partial 

 digestion, being present. Small crabs like Hyas coardatus and Atelecyclus 

 septemdentatus, but especially the former, were by no means rare, several of 

 them being scarcely injured except that the shell was slightly softened. 

 Norway lobsters {Nephrops norvegicus) were frequent, both in the stomachs 

 of large and small fishes, full-grown as well as young specimens being 

 moderately frequent, and not a few of the smaller as well as the larger 

 examples having apparently been swalloAved whole, only the shell being 

 slightly softened and shrivelled. Nephrops and hermit crabs — especially 

 Eupagurus bernhardus — were the more common among the crustace^ 

 observed. 



