6 FISH—CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
Prof. H. J. Rice, a gentleman who is peculiarly well qualified 
to make these investigations, and have now his report on the 
subject brought down to this date. It is proposed to continue 
these investigations for at least two years, and longer if 1t 
should be deemed important. 
BROOKLYN, June 4th, 1883. 
Mr. E. G. Blackford: 
DEAR SiR.—I beg leave to report to you as follows in regard to the 
work which I have been carrying on under your direction during the 
past few months, in the line of ascertaining the food of the various 
food fishes and their time of spawning. I began operations upon the 
24th day of February last, and up to the present time (June 4th) have 
worked upon two hundred and five (205) specimens of eighteen differ- 
ent species, divided as follows: 52 striped bass, 14 cod, 30 mackerel: 
33 bluefish, 17 shad, 19 sea bass, 12 sheepshead, 8 porgies, 6 weakfish, 
4 eels, 3 black bass, 1 smelt, 1 flounder, 1 angler fish, 1 mossbunker; 
7 salmon, I sturgeon, and I moonfish. 
Of the 52 striped bass 12 were males, varying in weight from 2 up to 
46 lbs., and the rest were females, varying in weight from 3 up to 78 lbs, 
The first which I examined showed very little ripeness, and excepting 
a few scales, only a thick chyle-like material in the stomach; but 
gradually more evidences of feeding, in the shape of backbones, scales 
etc., presented themselves, and on the 23rd of March a fish was taken 
in the Chesapeake Bay weighing 66 pounds and having eight large 
alewives in its stomach. Since then rarely a fish has been examined 
that did not have in its stomach from one to seven fish in various 
stages of digestion. The species which I have been able to identify 
were alewives, eels, flounders, menhaden, and, in one instance, one of 
its own species. In this last case I found in the stomach of the small 
bass, which was about six inches long, a:considerable quantity of 
shrimp. In only two other instances have I found any evidence that 
the food of the striped bass was anything but fish, and these were 
first, in finding the claw of a small rock crab among some fish remains 
in the stomach of one of the large bass, and it may be that this claw 
had been swallowed by one of the fishes which the bass had swallowed, 
rather than by the bass itself; second, in finding two small shrimp in 
the stomach of a large male from Sing Sing on the Hudson. Among 
the males the spermaries gradually softened, until on May 11th, I 
found two, one of 22 and one of 26 Ibs. in weight, and on the 12th one 
18 lbs., which were spent. In the females the ovaries began to ripen 
somewhat earlier than with the males, one being taken on May 5th, 
off Governor’s Island, weighing 46 lbs. and partially spent. Another 
