204 



Conservation Department 



and shrimps constituted 32% of foods eaten and formed 40.07% 

 of that available. No worms or millipedes were taken in either 

 the drift or bottom studies, yet they formed 7% of the food found 

 in these stomachs. 



Gordon and Embody 1 state that insects constituted 88.88%, cray- 

 fish and shrimps 8.23%, fish 2.52% and clams and snails .27% 

 (excluding plant and animal debris) of the total contents of 161 

 brook trout stomachs examined by them. We found no fish in any 

 stomach examined by us. These results are not truly comparable 

 to our figures since they are given in per cent by volume while ours 

 are expressed in per cent by number, although they both show 

 about the same choice of foods taken by the trout. They quote 

 from Juday 2 that "with the exception of small brook trout and 

 fry, insect material found consisted of such forms as fell into the 

 water accidentally." This is the reverse of our findings, only 11% 

 of the insect material being terrestrial in origin. Needham 3 in 

 reporting the food of 25 brook trout taken from Bone pond, Sara- 

 nac Inn, New York, found the food all aquatic in origin but two 

 beetles. This is more in accord with our findings at this station. 



Available Fish Food in Submerged Plant Beds. — The avail- 

 able fish foods found in various types of submerged plant beds 

 were studied to ascertain the relative value of such beds in relation 



Table 8. — Types of Submerged Plant Beds and the Weight in Grams per 

 Square Foot of Available Fish Food 



Common name 



Scientific name 



Date and place collected 



Wt. in 



grams of 



fish food 



from 



1 sq. ft. 







North brook, Price spring, Auburn, 

 N. Y., Aug. 17, 1927 







Nasturtium nasturtium- 

 aquaticum 



Potamogeton americanus. 



37.0 



Watercress 



Price brook, Auburn, N. Y., Aug. 17, 

 1927 



12.8 



Pondweed 



East branch Owego creek, Hartford 

 Mills, Aug. 25, 1927 



5.85 





Sixmile creek, Slaterville, N. Y., 

 Aug. 13, 1927 







Ranunculus aquatilis 



Potamogeton pectinatus. . 



4.88 



Water buttercup. . 

 Sago pondweed . . . 



West branch Owego creek, Caroline, 



N. Y., Aug. 23, 1927 



East branch Owego Creek, Hartford 



Mills, N. Y., Aug. 26, 1927 



Sixmile creek, Slaterville, N. Y., 



Aug. 15, 1927 



Canoga Spring brook, Canoga, N. Y., 



Aug. 16, 1927 



3.51 

 3.19 



Horned pondweed. 



Zannichelliapalustris 



*3.12 

 2.93 





Average weight in grams per unit area 









9.16 









* Based upon actual weight of available fish food from one-twelfth of one square foot. 



i Loc. cit. 



2 Juday, C. A. Study of Twin lakes, Colorado, with especial consideration of 

 the food 'of the trouts." Bull. U. S. Bur. of Fisheries, Vol. 26, 1906. 



s Needham, J. G% Food of Brook Trout in Bone Pond. Bulletin 68, New 

 York State Museum, Albany, N. Y., 1903. 



