No. 470] 



HABITS OF NECTURUS 



129 



well as crustaceans I am not warranted in asserting that it feeds 

 on anything other than true fishes." 



Milner quotes Clark as stating that "those taken at Ecorse, 

 Mich., were so gorged with white-fish spawn that when they were 

 thrown on shore, hundreds of eggs would fly out of their mouths." 



The writer has tried to feed them with various kinds of food. 

 Necturus will readily eat living earthworms but will pay no atten- 

 tion to dead ones. Pieces of liver which are held in forceps and 

 moved gently through the water in close proximity to the snout they 

 seize and devour. But the most satisfactory food is small minnows 

 which at intervals are placed in the aquaria. The movements 

 of the minnows seem to excite the animals whose heads are soon 

 seen protruding from beneath the concealing objects. When 

 the minnow comes in close proximity there is a flash-like move- 

 ment toward the minnow which in turn either escapes or is swal- 

 lowed. The writer has observed repeated failures to catch the 

 minnow, but the persistence of the animal is remarkable and 



From the fact that whenever the water is disturbed in the vicin- 

 ity of the snout they snap viciously one is led to infer that in taking 

 food they rely almost entirely upon the tactile sense. 



Necturus is much dreaded by the ordinary fishermen who re- 

 gard them as poisonous as do also the Indians (Durkee). Ac- 

 cording to Gibbes ('53) the negroes are terrified by its presence. 

 He says that "the piggin or wooden vessel in whicli an animal 

 was placed after its capture, was destroyed by the negro to whom 

 it belonged, who was resolved never to carry food in it or eat out 

 of it again." Notwithstanding this popular superstition the ani- 

 mal is perfectly harmless and may be handled at pleasure. Its 

 flesh is white and said to be very palatable by Wilder (74) who 

 writes as follows: "In ]>reparing a i>aper u[)()n their anatomy 

 and embryology, Dr. W. S. Barnard^ aiid myself have liad occa- 



many hooks for fisli has brought us a hundred during the past 

 monlh (March); he, and all others, apparently regard them as 

 poisonous, and are rather averse to touching them; so far is this 

 from the case, that tliey are absolutely harmless in every way: 

 and on the 5th Dr. 15arn'ar<! an<l myself ate one which was cooked. 



