16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



mentions, on the authority of two quite reliable Cape Cod fish- 

 ermen, that "■ when opened, entire sea-fowl such as large gulls, 

 are frequently found in their stomachs, which they supposed 

 them to catch in the night, when they are floating upon the 

 surface of the water," He also notes he was "informed by 

 Captain Leonard West, of Chilmark, that he had known a goose- 

 fish to be taken having in its stomach six coots in a fresh con- 

 dition. These he considered to have been swallowed when they 

 had been diving to the bottom in search of food." According 

 to Brown-Goode, a fisherman informed him "he once saw a 

 struggle in the water, and found that a goose-fish had swallowed 

 the head and neck of a large loon, which had pulled it to the 

 surface and was trying to escape. There is authentic record of 

 seven wild ducks having been taken from the stomach of one of 

 them. Slyly approaching from below, they seize birds as they 

 float upon the surface."^ Bigelow recently mentions* two 

 goose-fish taken in North Carolina, which contained ducks in 

 good preservation. One had a Lesser Scaup and the other a 

 Red-breasted Merganser. 



' Gill, Smiths. Misc. Coll., xlvii, 1905, pp. 507-50S. 

 * Forest and Stream, Ixxx, February 8th, 1913, p. ]7o. 



