284 THE COLTS BILL OF FARE. CHAP. xiv. 



of his rarest crustaceans. " It is quite wonderful," he 

 says, " what is to be got in this way. Indeed, no one 

 would believe it who has not made the experiment." 

 Take, for instance, the Cod's bill of fare. " It is 

 to the stomach of this species," says Edward, " that 

 I am most indebted for many of the rarest of the 

 testaceous and crustaceous specimens that I possess. 

 I will only mention what I have myself seen : crabs 

 and lobsters of almost every description (except Ho- 

 marus vulgaris, which I have never yet found), from 

 the prickly Stone Crab (Lithodes maia) up to the 

 hard Parten (Cancer pagurus), and the larger the 

 better. Shells of every sort, particularly Fusus anti- 

 quus and Buccinium ' Undatwn, ; no matter whether 

 inhabited by their original possessor, or by a hermit 

 in the form of a Pagurus, it is no obstacle to the 

 voracious Cod. Shrimps, fish-lice, sea-mice (Aphro- 

 dita aculeata), sea-urchins, with now and then a star- 

 fish ; * Dead Men's Paps,' as they are called here 

 (Alcydnium), and Actinias no matter what they may 

 be attached to, whether a shell or a stone,* provided 

 these are not themselves fixtures, all are gulped by 

 this most unceremonious fish. The eggs, capsules, or 

 purses of the Dog-fish (Scyllium) and the Skate, with 

 the roe and the ova of other species, particularly when 

 deposited on seaweed ; the Algae and the Zoophytes 



* " It is only about nine months since I took from the stomach 

 of a Cod a stone which weighed above three pounds, to which 

 the remains of an Actinia were still attached." 



