316 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE FOOD OF FISHES. 

 By Jas. Johnstone. 



Observations on the food of comparatively few fishes 

 have been made. The following lists refer to the 

 examination of the stomachs of 114 plaice and 146 dabs. 

 The observations were made not as part of a systematic 

 scheme for the investigation of the food of fishes in 

 general, but rather with the object of exhibiting the 

 contrast between the food of plaice and dabs caught on 

 the same fishing ground and in the same hauls of the 

 net. I give the numbers of both kinds of fish taken in 

 the hauls ; the sizes of the fish are not given, but generally 

 plaice of 9 to 12 inches in length, and dabs of 7 to 10 

 inches were examined. The contents of the stomach and 

 intestines are given for each fish examined and the 

 observations relating to plaice and dabs caught together 

 are put in parallel columns. 



1. Plaice and Dabs. 



3rd January, 1906. — Blackpool Closed Ground. 

 Catch : 3 plaice, 77 dabs : — 



3 plaice and 6 dabs examined, but all had empty 

 stomachs. 



9th January, 1906. — Beaumaris Bay. Catch : 146 

 plaice, 109 dabs : — 



T plaice. 8 dabs. 



4 — Empty. 3 — Empty. 



1 — Scrobicularia. 1 — Mactra. 



1 — Solen and Scrobicularia. 1 — Mactra and Crangon. 

 1 — An amphipod. 1— Foot of Cardium. 



2 — Ophiurids. 



