160 



coiiimouly captured were larvii? of Gyrinidne aud Hydrophilidie ; whereas 

 the adult surface beetles themselves {Gyrinus, Dineutes, etc.), whose 

 zigzag-dartiug swarms no one can have failed to notice, were not once 

 encountered in my studies. 



^'The almost equally well known slender Water-skippers {Ri/grotre- 

 cJius) seem also completely protected by their habits and activity 

 from capture by fishes, only a single specimen occurring in the food of 

 all my specimens. Indeed the true Water-bugs (Hemiptera) were gen- 

 erally rare, with the exception of the small soft-bodied genus Corisa, 

 which was taken by one hundred and ten specimens, belonging to 

 twenty-seven species, most abundantly by the Sunflshes aud Top Min- 

 nows. 



" From the order IN'europtera fishes draw a larger part of their food 

 than from any other single group. In fact, nearly a fifth of the entire 

 amount of food consumed by all the adult fishes examined by me con- 

 sisted of aquatic larvae of this order, the greater part of them larvue of 

 Day Flies (Ephemeridse), principally of the genus Hexagenia,^ These 

 Neuropterous larvae were eaten especially by the Miller's Thumb, the 

 Sheepshead, the White and Striped Bass, the common Perch, thirteen 

 species of the Darters, both the Black Bass, seven of the Sunfishes, 

 the Kock Bass and the Croppies, the Pirate Perch, the Brook Silver- 

 sides, the Sticklebacks, the Mud Minnow, the Top IMinnows, the Giz- 

 zard Shad, the Toothed Herring, twelve species each of the true Min- 

 now family, and of the Suckers and Buffalo, five Oatfishes, the Dog- 

 fish, and the Shovel Fish— seventy species out of the eighty seven 

 which I have studied. 



"Among the above I found them the most important food of thi 

 White Bass, the Toothed Herring, the Shovel Fish (51 per cent.), and 

 the Croppies ; while they made a fourth or more of the alimentary con-j 

 tents ot the Sheepshead (46 per cent.), the Darters, the Pirate PerchJ 

 the common Sunfishes (Lepornis and CJucnobryttus), the Eock Bass, th< 

 Little Pickerel, and the common Sucker (36 per cent.). 



*' Ephemerid larvae were eaten by two hundred and thirteen speci- 

 mens of forty-eight species, not counting young. The larva?, of Hcxa-] 

 (jenia^ one of the commonest of the * Elver Flies,' was by far the most 

 important insect of this group, this alone amounting to about half oi 

 all the Neuroptera eaten. They made nearly one-half of the food oi 

 the Shovel Fish, more than one-tenth that of the Sunfishes, and the 

 principal food resource of half-grown Sheepshead ; but were rarely^ 

 taken by the Sucker family, and made only 5 per cent, of the food ol 

 the Cattish group. 



"The various larva? of the Dragon Flies, on the other hand, wen 

 much less fre(iuently encountered. They seemed to be most abundanl 

 in the food of the Grass Pickerel (25 per cent.), and next to that in th< 

 Crop])ie, the, Pirate Perch, aiul the common Perch (10 to 13 per cent.).' 



' Th«i wini^ed adults of this and related genera are often called **Kiver Flies '*ii 

 Illiiioi.s. 



