No. 465] STUDIES OF MYXINOIDS. : 647 
moment the first sardine was thrown into the water, the hagfish 
near it woke up, and went to it; other fish were thrown in, and 
in a minute or so the whole tank was alive. They ate raven- 
ously, five or six crowding each other around one sardine. 
Within a few moments, twenty-one and a half of the two dozen 
sardines had been disposed of ; the rest they finished during the 
night. As they seemed to be hungry, six sardines were given 
them four days later. The first was placed in the water very 
quietly and with as little jarring as possible ; I had already 
noticed that an object could be placed quietly in the water with- 
out their paying any attention to it. When this first sardine 
was put in, however, several fish within six or eight inches of it 
were instantly on the alert, showing that they smelt it. They 
swam over to it, nosed around it, and ate a little. In a minute 
or so several fish at a greater distance stirred and came over, 
and they too nosed around the sardine. Other sardines were 
then thrown in, but comparatively few of the fish ate, and these 
only lightly. Although there were more than one hundred hag- 
fish in the tank, only two and a half sardines were disposed of. 
They were not fed again for two weeks and a half. Then 
seven sardines were given them. They woke up instantly and 
examined them, nosing around them as a dog does around a 
bone. About a dozen gnawed the fish in various places, and by 
the next morning three of the sardines were entirely eaten, but 
the others were untouched. 
Of course in making these observations it was impossible to 
tell which fish fed at the different times, and how long any one 
fish went without food. But the day after the two dozen sar- 
dines were eaten, two fish were taken upstairs and placed in the 
small aquarium there, where they were kept for a month. Dur- 
ing this month a sardine was offered them twice, and left with 
them for thirty-six hours, but was untouched on both occasions. 
It is thus apparent that they can go à long time without food, 
and do not eat nearly so heartily when they do feed as has 
been supposed. The explanation of the greater hunger of those 
freshly caught probably lies in the fact that they were rather 
hungry when they found the food in the trap, and that some of 
them had not been able to get enough of it to satisfy them. 
