Parasites, Diseases and Enemies. 269 



Most fish will eat smaller ones, if we except the stur- 

 geons, the whitefishes, suckers, carp and goldfish, and 

 these will eat fish eggs. The pikes eat nothing but fish, 

 and we have five species of them, while Europe has but 

 one. Eels are very destructive. 



REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



Most of these eat fish to a greater or less extent. The 

 water-snakes, garter-snakes and the black-snake eat 

 fish, and perhaps other species may also eat them. All 

 the snapping turtles, pond and river turtles eat fish. 

 The little land tortoises called "box turtles" may take 

 insects, but will not eat fish. I have kept them for 

 years, and their food, as far as I could observe, was 

 vegetable. Those large salamander-like forms all eat 

 fish. They are the "mud eel" (Siren lacertina), thirty- 

 six inches, Northern Indiana to North Carolina and 

 south; the proteus, mud puppy, water dog (Necturus 

 maculates), called "lizard" in the Detroit River, twenty- 

 four inches, Eastern United States, chiefly north and 

 west of the Alleghanies; this animal has its gills outside 

 its head ; I have eaten this beast. The hellbender ( Cryp- 

 tobranchus alleghaniensis), twenty-four inches, Ohio 

 valley and south, lives largely on small fish. The ranges 

 and lengths given are from Jordan's "Manual of the 

 Vertebrates." 



Frogs, especially the large ones, eat fish, and I once 

 took from one a young snapping turtle, about an inch 

 (2^ c.m.) in diameter. The toad frequents the water at 

 times but does not eat fish. 



The frog is popularly supposed to spend its time in 

 summer in rendering Wagnerian operas and catching- 



