212 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS 



handle so much line, and the catch runs about two-thirds small. The same is true in fishing at 

 different depths at the same time and in the same place. Thus, of two men fishing side by side 

 from the deck of a vessel, the one with his hook on the bottom will catch much larger fish than 

 the other who lets his line but part way down. Larger fish are also taken on the trawl than on the 

 hand-line, for the former lies constantly on the bottom, while the latter may be raised to any 

 distance above it." ' 



FOOD. Codfish feed upon all marine animals smaller than themselves which are found in the 

 same waters with them and are digestible. It would seem useless to give a catalogue of the species 

 which have been discovered in their stomachs. For a long period of years, before our naturalists 

 learned to use the hand-dredge, a favorite place in which to search for the rare invertebrates of the 

 deep water was the fish-dealer's store, and from the stomachs of Codfish scores of shells new to 

 science have been taken. Since the introduction of improved methods of deep-sea research this 

 mode of collecting has been somewhat less prosperous, but even at the present time many impor- 

 tant additions to zoology are yearly made by the aid of this omnivorous animal. In the Keport of 

 the United States Commission, Part I, pp. 516, 517, may be found a list of the species of mollusks 

 obtained by Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull from Cod caught near Stonington, Connecticut, and this 

 includes but a very small percentage of the number that has thus been observed. 



Codfish swallow bivalve shells of the largest size, like the great sea clams, which are a favorite 

 article of food on certain portions of the coast ; for instance, in Ipswich Bay great beds of empty 

 shells of the sea-clam, Maetra ovalis, may be found upon the bottom. These shells are " nested," 

 the smaller inside of the larger, sometimes six or seven in a set, having been packed together in 

 this compact manner in the stomachs of the Codfish after the soft parts have been digested out. Some 

 of them had shreds of the mussels remaining in them and were quite fresh, having evidently been 

 but recently ejected by the fish. In Dana's "Geology" are mentioned great banks of dead shells 

 off the island of Grand Mauan, which doubtless originated in the same manner. Mr. W. H. Ball 

 found some similar beds on the coast of Alaska which he attributed to the walrus, but which are more 

 probably the remains of mollusks eaten by the Codfish. They feed also upon crabs of all kinds, 

 lobsters and star fish, and have been seen at the surface catching the potato beetles and " June- 

 bugs" which have drifted out from the shore. It is said that they succeed occasionally in capturing 

 a duck, 2 and that they vary their diet by browsing upon carrageen, or Irish moss, which grows on 

 the ledges near the shore. In searching at the bottom for shells and worms, Codfish often pick 

 up objects which can hardly be regarded as nutritious. A very amusing catalogue of such objects 

 might be included in this chapter, in which would be enumerated articles such as scissors, brass 

 oil-cans, potato parings, corn cobs, and head of a rubber doll. The finding of finger-rings and 

 fragments of oil-clothing, and the heel of a boot, inside of a large Codfish has suggested the idea 

 that sometimes they swallow the fishermen. 



"A wedding ring which belonged to Pauline Burnam, an English lady who was lost in the 

 steamship Anglo Saxon, wrecked off Chance Cove, N. F., in 1861, was lately restored to her rela- 

 tions by a St. Johns (N. F.) fisherman, who found the ring in the entrails of a Codfish. The 

 lucky fisherman received a present of 50 for restoring the highly prized memento to the lady's son." 1 



Stones of considerable size are often found in their stomachs, and fishermen have a theory 

 that this is a sign of an approaching storm and that the fish thus take in ballast to enable them 



'EARl.l.: loc. i' it. 



*Th6 Vineyard Gazette says that Mr. James Osborne took a Codfish on Wednesday, at the " South Side," which 

 weighed over sixty pounds. On dressing it, two fall-grown ducks (old squaws) were found in its entrails. They were 

 quite fresh, having most of their feathers on. Gloucester Telegraph, May 6, 1857. 



Boston Journal, July 6, 1871. 



