224 Field and Forest Rambles. 



fins, chub, dace, sticklebacks, etc., and, strange to say, found 

 almost every individual enormously distended by a species of 

 TAPEWORM. The abdomen was so enlarged that in many 

 cases the flat worm could be discerned through the attenuated 

 walls, slight pressure producing rupture, when one or more of 

 the creatures were seen lying loose in the cavity. I examined 

 one five inches in length, extracted from the abdominal cavity 

 of a young chub not over three inches long. This specimen, 

 like the others, belonged apparently to one species, and repre- 

 sented the undeveloped and jointless state of the bothro- 

 cephali, or broad tapeworms. The head was pointed, body 

 rapidly widening for the anterior third, then tapering steadily 

 towards the tail, which was slender and pointed. None of the 

 silvery salmon trout or perch captured contained them, nor 

 were there apparently any embryos of the parasite in the livers 

 and viscera of redfins and dace, which contained the above in 

 the abdominal cavity. On the generally received opinion that 

 these worms never attain a perfect state until they get into the 

 intestines of other species of fish that prey on their host, one 

 would expect to meet with perfect bothrocephali in the silvery 

 salmon trout, perch, and pike, that devour the redfins, etc. 

 Moreover, the water-fowl, herons, etc., should be infested by 

 them ; and perhaps such is the case, although I could not 

 discover these parasites in their interiors. But an allied species 

 is found also in man, and apparently it has not yet been shown 

 from whence he derives the unwelcome tenant. The subject, 

 viewed from the above point of view, presents .some unpleasant 

 features as regard fish food ; but there is a certain obscurity 

 still hanging over the whole study, that leaves room to question 

 whether the development of all the stages of tapeworms is 

 not possible in the same animal. At all events, I cannot 

 recommend the chub, etc., of the Grand Lake Stream as 

 savoury articles of food, and am only too happy to be in a 

 position to state that the silvery salmon trout, as far as I 



