feeding of Fishes tn Confinement. 67 
amination of the stomach of the menhaden we were induced 
to believe that they feed upon the bottom mud. The men- 
haden is just the same kind of food and the same stomach 
as the gizzard-herring and the gizzard-shad of the South. 
What Mr. Brevoort has said as to the surface-living of the 
mackerel is true, but there are departures from this. In 
regard to the question of fish-food, we know that the men- 
haden is carnivorous, but as far as we have any evidence 
from examining the stomachs, it seems that the mud sup- 
ply has rather the first place. Professor Goode stated in 
regard to the plunging of fish into deeper water, that ex- 
periment had proved that both the menhaden and mackerel 
have the power of plunging to great depths. 
Mr. FREDERICK MATHER produced a little fish in a bottle, 
which he said he picked up on the ship’s deck, two hundred 
miles this side of Queenstown, and put up in the little bot- 
tle in which it now was, and that it had proved to be very 
valuable, only one other specimen having been found. 
Mr. Freperick MATHER read a paper on the Feeding of 
Fishes in Confinement. 
I think that the first intimation which I received that pos- 
sibly our system of feeding fish on liver and lights might 
not be the best that was possible, was furnished not by a 
fish itself, but by an animal as low in the scale as a zoo- 
phyte. It may be as well to explain to those who are not 
familiar with them, that anemones have but one orifice to 
their digestive system, which serves all, purposes of inlet and 
outlet. The-stomach is a simple bag into which the mouth 
opens directly, and when the animal takes food it closes like 
a flower, the stomach pours out its secretions and dissolves 
