GROWTH, MIGRATIONS, FOOD AND HABITS 1 23 



also found occasionally in the stomachs of other flat-fishes, 

 namely, common dabs, long rough dabs, and even some- 

 times in lemon dabs. The bivalve represented in Fig. 68 

 {Mactra siibtnincata) is eaten by plaice on the Dogger 

 Bank, and in the Firth of Forth, and doubtless in other 

 localities. The small shell-fish shown in Fig. 69 {Scrobi- 

 ailarid), of which there are two or three species, forms 

 a large proportion of the food of the plaice in certain 

 localities, such as the Firth of Forth and the Irish Sea. It 

 is also eaten by other flat-fishes, and very largely by the 

 haddock. The common squid (Fig. 70) is a favourite food 

 of the cod, conger, spiny dog-fish, turbot, brill, ling, and other 

 fishes. 



We next come to the Annelids or Worms, now usually and 

 more precisely named Chaetopods. The common lug-worm re- 

 presented in Fig. 71 is well-known from the fact that it inhabits 

 flat muddy shores between tide marks all round our coasts in 

 countless multitudes, but it lives also beyond low-water mark 

 where the ground is sufiiciently'soft. Fig. 72 represents a creature 

 commonly known as the sea-mouse, but to which naturalists 

 have given the name of the Greek goddess of love and beauty. 

 Aphrodite. Notwithstanding its unusual shape and appearance, 

 it is one of the bristle-bearing worms, consisting like the rest of 

 a series of similar segments ; but the boundaries of these 

 segments are concealed by a sheet of felted bristles which covers 

 the back. Its beauty consists, not in its rotundity of form or 

 curved outline, but in the iridescent colours of the delicate silky 

 bristles on its sides. In Fig. 73 is shown the appearance of one 

 of the commonest of the numerous species of Nereis which live 

 under and between stones, or burrow in soft ground. All these 

 forms, as well as numerous other species of worms, many of 

 which live in fixed tubes of their own manufacture, are largely 

 eaten by plaice, sole, lemon dab, and other flat-fishes. Aphrodite 

 is also eaten by cod and haddock, and by the thornback ray, 

 and the spotted dog-fishes. 



Among Echinoderms the forms most largely eaten by fishes 

 are those known as sand-stars and brittle-stars. Two of the 

 species most constantly devoured are represented in Figs. 74, 75. 

 The sand-star {Ophiiira albida), is distinguished by the stiffness 

 of its arms, and the minuteness of the spines which they bear. 



