14 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
near it. Thus it is easily explained why it is that the principal 
food of this bottom fish is not such objects as would be obtained 
by rooting or grubbing in the sand and mud, but crustaceans and 
annelids, the capture of which requires considerable agility. 
The presence of the siphons of pelecypod mollusks, which are 
occasionally found in the stomachs of flounders, is accounted — for 
when it is recalled that flounders often bite off the extended siphons 
of mollusks. The appearance of such siphons as [ have found in 
the stomachs of flounders would indicate this origin rather than that 
they represent the least digestible pants of the mollusk. 
Vinal Edwards’s record shows that 628 adult winter flounders were 
examined on 82 dates. The following data from his unpublished 
food notes are appended: Annelids are recorded on 9 dates, in 50 
fish; Crustacea, on 10 dates, in 67 fish; ascidians, on 26 dates, in 126 
fish; and mollusks, on 11 days, in 56 fish. The ascidian which Mr. 
Edwards records is Botryllus gouldii, which occurs abundantly on eel- 
grass, where it forms translucent, fleshy incrustations. The small 
flounders which the author has examined did not contain any 
tunicate material. 
An increase in the ratio of annelids to Crustacea with the size of 
the fish is observable in fishes under 200 mm. in length. Thus the 
percentages are: In 150 fish, 50 mm. and under, Crustacea 51.45, 
annelids 18.10; in 148 fish, 51 to 100 mm. in length, Crustacea 41.21, 
annelids 34.47; in 75 fish, 101 to 150 mm. in length, Crustacea 34.74, 
annelids 32.10; in 23 fish, 151 to 200 mm. in length, Crustacea 14.17, 
annelids 36.91. 
O 
