126 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



fish eat the flesh of mammals. Indeed, fisherman often use mammal 

 meat for bait. Fishes often catch small mammals along the edge of 

 the water or in it. Cabot tells us that during a season of overabundance 

 of mice in Labrador the trout fed chiefly upon mice and acquired a 

 mousy flavor, all trout over half a pound in weight then containing 

 mice. 19 White-footed mice are part of the usual food of Kern River 

 trout in California. "Scarcely one of the trout was taken that one or 

 more of these mice was not found in its stomach, while from one fish 

 of unusual size no fewer than five were taken." 20 Pickerel, gar-pike 

 and perhaps other fishes catch young muskrats as they are swimming 

 in the water. 21 Schools of small fishes of the genus Serrosalmo in tropi- 

 cal America even attack men in the water and inflict serious injuries. 22 

 It is said that sometimes they almost literally eat men alive, as they 

 do any other mammal that enters or falls into the water when they 

 are about. The larger sharks, individuals of which are sometimes called 

 man-eaters, are formidable antagonists, feared by swimmers and div- 

 ers. 



We have noted that the mink, otter and coyote eat reptiles and 

 frogs, but other mammals do also. The European hedgehog eats frogs, 

 toads and snakes, as well as birds, mice and various invertebrates. 23 

 Solitary instances are reported of a salamander, a frog and a snake 

 having been eaten by chipmunks. 24 Lizards and salamanders are known 

 to have been eaten by grasshopper mice. 25 A muskrat was observed 

 catching a salamander. 26 Rattlesnakes have been killed by brown house 

 rats and bush rats. 27 A mouse is reported to have attacked and eaten 

 lizards in captivity. 28 A white-footed mouse in captivity killed and 

 partly ate a snake large enough to have eaten the mouse. 29 True, these 

 two instances occurred in captivity, under artificial conditions, and do 

 not prove that under natural conditions mice would attack either snakes 

 or lizards. 



Reptiles are better known as the enemies of mammals than as the 



19 Cabot, Labrador, 1921. Allen, Journ. Mammalogy, in, 56, 1922. 



20 Henshaw, Kept. Chief of U. S. Engineers, 1876, Part 3, p. 529. 



21 Lantz, Farmers' Bull., No. 396, p. 35, 1910. Arthur, Louisiana Dept. Conservation 

 Bull. No. 18, p. 174, 1928. 



22 Jordan, Guide to the study of fishes, n, 161, 1905. 



23 Ingersoll, The life of animals, pp. 68-77, 1907. 



24 Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 52, pp. 9-11, 1929. 



28 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 93-94, 1915. Bailey and Sperry, U. S. Dept. 

 Agric. Technical Bull., No. 145, 1929. 



26 Warren, Mammals of Colorado, p. 106, 1910. 



27 Hartman, Journ. Mammalogy, in, 116-117, 1922. 



^Burt, A note on the mouse as an enemy to lizards, Copeia, No. 162, pp. 15-16, 

 1927. 



^Hatt, Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 186-187, 1923. 



