SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 



239 



6. Food of Plaice and Soles 



Very generally it is found that plaice feed almost 

 exclusively on small bivalve molluscs, suck as mussels, 

 cockles, and such forms as Scrobieularia, Tellina or 

 Nucula, while soles prefer nereid worms. But occasion- 

 ally this choice of food is entirely reversed. Thus in a 

 haul made off the Liverpool N.W. Lightship, on 27th 

 September, 1904, all the plaice dissected (about half- 

 dozen) were found to be feeding entirely on nereid worms, 

 while the principal contents of the stomachs of the soles 

 examined were the bivalves Solen and Scrobieularia, and 

 nereids and prawns, though also present, were not 

 apparently a favourite food. In Luce Bay, again the 

 stomachs of most of the plaice examined contained 

 Nucula, Donax and Solen, but in many cases nereids 

 were the commonest food, and in others the stomachs 

 contained the unusual food animals, ophiuroids and 

 amphipods. 



7. Weights of Soles and Plaice of various lengths. 



Several soles caught off Morecarnbe Bay Lightship, 

 on 20th September, 1904, were measured and weighed, 

 and the results recorded. The latter may be of interest, 

 as shewing how very rapidly the weight increases with 

 increasing length. 



Length. 



Weight. 



9* 



inches. 



3} ozs. 



10 



,, 



a » 



12 



>? 



8J „ 



121 



55 



9 „ 



131 



55 



15 „ 



14 



55 



14J „ 



15 



55 



18J „ 



