38 PELAGIC FAUNA. 



food of the little fishes at all stages, but especially from an inch 

 and a half to three inches in length. These fishes feed on the 

 young mussels as they settle down on the sea-weeds, rocks, and 

 zoophytes in August, after a free-swimming larval existence. 

 Like some of the forms indicated above, mussels live to a 

 considerable extent on microscopic plants and various minute 

 organisms contained in the mud of the estuaries and other 

 sites, so that a rich and favourite food, universally liked by 

 fishes, is the product of these uninviting flats. Moreover, 

 in passing, it may be remarked that, while everywhere preyed 

 on by the food-fishes, it occasionally happens that in turn the 

 mussel proves a source of inconvenience to them, for, settling 

 on the gill-arches of haddocks, the mussels flourish on a site so 

 suitable for aeration and food that they by-and-by press out 

 the gill-cover and impede respiration, just as the shore-crab 

 (which is also fond of mussels) has its eye-stalks wrenched out 

 by the slow but sure growth of the young mussels which 

 have fixed themselves, wedge-like, in their sockets. Nemesis 

 thus, by a chance of anchorage, converts a favourite food into a 

 permanent inconvenience. 



Again, in connection with the pelagic food of fishes, it is a 

 well-known fact that adult cod are extremely fond of sea- 

 anemones ', and some of the rarest species may be procured in 

 their stomachs, a feature by no means surprising when we 

 remember that Abbe Dicquemare cooked and ate his sea- 

 anemones with great relish, and wrote in their favour, as 

 also did Mr Gosse in our country. Now, the pelagic young 

 fishes, instead of roaming near the bottom in proximity to the 

 anemones fixed on the rocks, and running the risk of being 

 themselves captured for food, find in the inshore waters in 

 summer the larval Peachice, worm-like anemones, in great 

 numbers conveniently attached by the mouth to the little 

 jelly-fishes {Thaumantias hemisphcerica, and T. melanops) which 

 occur in swarms in mid-water. Moreover, the somewhat 

 larger young food-fishes (cod and green cod of 2 — 3 inches) 



1 A favourite bait for cod in some parts (e.g. Aberdeen and St Andrews), 

 and from the fact, amongst others, that star-fishes do not molest them on the 

 hooks, no bait is more successful. 



