17 



Linn.), schizopoda, and a few specimens of an ostracod. Finally 

 I should mention two specimens of an actinia (metridium dianthus), 

 titbularia tubes, and a few annelidce. 



In this connection may be mentioned that the stomach of an 

 ocean cod, caught in the same district on March 4th, 1897, con- 

 tained a specimen of padus callarias, measuring 30 cm. 



Hitherto I have only accounted for my examinations of the 

 stomach contents of ocean cod or skrei from different parts of the 

 coast; also on the food of the fjord cod I have made some obser- 

 vations. 



February 1897. Stomach contents of fjord cods bought at the 

 Bergen fish market: 



Chirolophus galerita, rests of ommatostrephes, lima hians, 



pandalus sp., munida sp., portttnus depurator, ophiopholis aculeata. 



In the stomachs of fjord cods caught in the Herlo-fjord Apr. 



12th, 1897, were found in the same manner different decapod 



Crustacea, as rmmida and lithodes maja. 



There are also instances that cods have swallowed lemmings. 

 Thus in the Meisfjord, Alstadhaug, a cod was caught which, on 

 being opened, proved to contain no less than 16 of these animals 

 (Norsk Fiskeritidende 1891, p. 167). Professor COLLETT mentions 

 that alca torda is sometimes found in the stomach of the cod, and 

 there are also accounts to hand of young somateria mollissima 

 having been taken from cod stomachs. 



It thus appears from existing observations that the following 

 groups have yielded larger or smaller contributions to the greed- 

 iness of the cod: 



Mammalia, aves, pisces, cephalopoda, lamellibranchiata, gastro- 

 poda, brachyopoda, Crustacea, echinida, ophiurida, holothnrida, 

 actinida, hydroida. 



The class of animals that chiefly suffers is Crustacea, of which 

 the following orders are represented: Podophthalmata, isopoda, 

 amphipoda, ostracoda, copepoda. 



Employing terms taken from HJOCKEL'S division of the world 

 of organisms, it may be said that the cod, in our waters, chiefly 

 feeds on benthos ; the occurrence however of great masses of necton 

 forms (herrings, sand-eel, capelan, cuttlefish, &c.) causes that the 

 cod almost entirely abandon the bottom animals in order to indulge 

 in the far more laborious chasing of shoals of fish or cuttlefish. 

 Thus it is the latter quality in the cod that causes for instance 

 the Finmarken fisheries, and it is likely to be this same quality 

 that has made the fishermen complain that the codfisbing in Lo- 

 foten takes a rather irregular course when during the fishing season 

 shoals of herrings appear in the Lofoten seas. 



Further there are instances that a plancton organism (lima- 

 cina helicina) has caused a crowding, together of cod, by which 

 considerable catches could be made. 



Of other plancton animals I have only found boreophausia 

 inermis in numbers worth mentioning. That a form like eucJiceta 

 norvegica may occur in cod stomachs proves that, when full-grown, 

 it does not refuse the small things. It is not very likely that this 

 copepod should have entered together with other food, consequently 

 the cod has snatched at it. 



In this connection may be mentioned that I have been struck 

 to find a certain ostracod (cypridina norvegica) occurring several 

 times in cod stomachs. According to SAKS*) the animal possesses 

 a strong lighting power, and it may then be this very quality that 

 makes it end its life thus often in the stomach of the cod. 



With a claim to correctness it may finally be said that in the 

 household of the cod benthos is of greatest importance, then follows 

 necton, then plancton, the importance of which however is small 

 compared to the two former principal groups. 



Occasionally in my expeditions I have also examined the 

 stomach contents of other fishes, especially gadus ceglefinus and 

 g. virens. In the annual reports of the TromsO Museum, no. 16, 

 1893, Mr. SCHNEIDER has given a list of shell-decked molluscs 

 taken from the stomach of the haddock at Vardo. The author 

 gives no less than 92 species, whereof 3 Irachiopoda, 25 conchifera, 

 1 solenoconchia, and 63 gastropoda, among the latter such a rarity 

 as scalaria obtusicostata, Wood. It is a high percentage of the 

 arctic mollusc fauna that has been brought forward in this manner. 

 Of course the haddock in the Vardo sea also feeds upon echino- 

 dermata, but investigations of this are not to hand. During my 

 stay at Sundero in Vesteraalen at the beginning of February 1897, 

 I examined several haddock stomachs, which went to show that, 

 there at least, the echinodermata afforded the principal contingent 

 to the food of the haddock. The specimens were taken in nets 

 together with cod and green cod, the most common sizes being 

 65 68 cm. The roe appeared ready for spawning; I saw however, 

 as late as May 5th,\ haddocks with filled roe-bags at Rost. The 

 majority of the haddock, like the cod, probably spawns in the 

 month of March. Stomach and gut were as a rule crammed with 

 rests of echinodermata, more rarely appeared molluscs, and still 

 more rarely worms. 



Animals from the stomach and gut of the haddock: 

 Feb. 7th, 1897. Sundero. 



Oibbula tumida. 

 Feb. 8th, 1897. Sundero. 



Terebratulina capus serpentis, pecten sp., Strongylo- 

 centrotus drobachiensis, ophiopholis aculeata. 

 Feb. 12th, 1897. Sundero. 



Strongylocentrotus drobachiensis, ophiopJiolis aculeata. 

 April 28th, 1897. Rost. 



Strongylocentrotus, ophiopholis, phyllophorus sp., leo- 

 dice norvegica. 



At Sundero I also examined some green-cod stomachs, at the 

 beginning of February 1897. I found none that had spawned, but 

 the roe was quite ripe. The length of the green cod was about 

 80 cm. In the stomachs were found rests of ommatostrephes, am- 

 phipoda, and schizopoda. A few had their stomachs crammed with 

 nyctiphanes norvegicus. In green cod, caught April 28th, 1897, 

 in the By-fjord of Bergen, were also found large quantities of 

 nyctiphanes, as well as small herrings and sprat. G. 0. SARS has 



*) Oversigt over Norges marine Ostracoder, Christiania Vid. Selsk. Forh. 

 1865, p. 106. 



