l80 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Water mites of several species were eaten; but sparingly, as in- 

 dicated in the table, and they formed no considerable part of the 

 food total. 



Smaller snails one or two millimeters in diameter were eaten in 

 large numbers by five of the fishes of intermediate size (fish number 

 7 of the first lot being the smallest of that lot). These were not 

 certainly determinable since the delicate shell of these young snails 

 is very quickly dissolved in the digestive secretions ; but they were 

 certainly right-hand spires and apparently belonged to the genus 

 Limnea. 



No other groups of animals were represented save Rotifera by 

 a single smooth lorica found in fish number 13. Only one fish 

 had eaten silt, and in all, but two bits of algae were eaten, both 

 clearly recognizable as belonging to the genera Chara and 

 Nitella. 



Food of the red-bellied minnow 



That there is much need of the further study of the food of the 

 smaller species of fishes — those that furnish the supply of the 

 larger and more important ones — has long been perfectly clear. 

 Carnivorous forms can not live by eating each other indefinitely ; 

 it is obviously important to locate the primary supply. The food 

 of all organisms upon which fishes feed needs to be carefully 

 studied. Of the smaller fishes of Old Forge pond the red-bellied 

 minnow was most in evidence; its habits, however, have already 

 been mentioned. The food of 12 specimens of this species taken 

 near the hatchery pier along with the bullheads and sunfish already 

 discussed, was carefully examined with the microscope. The food 

 constituents were tabulated as far as tabulating was possible, but 

 since it subsists almost wholly on vegetable materials, green algae, 

 and disintegrating fragments of aquatic seed plants, accurate 

 numerical statement was impossible. The results of this examina- 

 tion are therefore given broadly as follows : 



Of the 12 minnows examined all had eaten both green algae and 

 dead waterweeds, and in but two of them could I discover the re- 

 mains of any animal whatever (fragment of the nymph of the genus 

 Caenis in one, and half of a small midge larvae in another). All 

 but one had eaten Spirogyra and five had eaten it in great abundance. 

 The only other algae eaten abundantly was an undetermined spher- 

 ical gelatinous tetrasporoid form which was recognized in five cases 

 and was abundant in two of them. There was more or less 

 unrecognizable silt in every case, and scattered through this were 



