202 



TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Post-larval Sprats. 



Locality. 

 1 off New Quay 

 Head, 10.7.06. 



1 off Blackpool, 

 18.7.06. 



1 off Port Erin, 

 20.7.06. 



1 Red Wharf Bay 

 7.9.06 



Milli- 

 metres. 



15 



Food. 

 2 Pseudocalanus 

 elongatus. 



1 Pseudocalanus 

 elongatus. 



16 No food. 



Young Pipe Fish. 



66 2 Pseudocalanus 

 elongatus. 

 2 Paracalanus 



parvus. 

 6 Acartia clausi. 



Remarks. 

 Pseudocalanus not 

 present in the 

 plankton. 



Pseudocalanus not 

 present in the 

 plankton. 



No Pseudocalanus 

 in the plankton, 

 Paracalanus and 

 Acartia tolerably 

 common. 



The food, in all the cases where it could be recog- 

 nised, consisted of Crustacea, chiefly copepoda. The 

 group was represented mainly by the pelagic forms. The 

 few littoral representatives found indicate that the fishes 

 containing them had been feeding near the bottom of 

 the sea previous to capture. It evidently does not follow 

 that if a particular copepod is any way numerous, the 

 fish feeds entirely upon it. In the above results it will 

 be noted that there are several instances where the fish 

 stomachs contained copepoda not represented in the sur- 

 rounding plankton taken in the tow-net along with the 

 young fish. The fish, no doubt, in its movements through 

 the water encounters various kinds of copepods. It is 

 not known, however, whether it feeds indiscriminately on 

 every one, or selects particularly coloured forms. The 

 majority of the copepoda are more or less coloured, and 

 so may be quite conspicuous apart from their size. It is 

 probable that the difference between the copepods in the 

 plankton and those in the fish stomach is due to the 

 unequal distribution. The fish may meet with a small 

 shoal of Anomalocera, young barnacles, or crab larvae, 

 capture a few of them, and pass on. It may then reach 



