COMMON EEL. 
1029 
rule, only when the water is turbid after a storm or 
in wet weather. It devours almost all animal food, 
live or dead, fresh or putrefied, that it can swallow. 
The small Eels content themselves with lower marine 
animals of every kind, small crustaceans (Gammarids), 
worms, and mollusks. Their elders begin with small 
fishes, such as Sticklebacks, Sand-eels, and Lampreys, 
and often gorge themselves with fish-roe. In fresh 
water they wage a ruthless war of extermination against 
the crayfish, which they most appreciate just after the 
old shell has been cast, and while the new one is still 
soft. They also attack one another; and instances are 
recorded of the victor in these combats being suffo- 
cated by its prey. The latter, the head of which was 
already swallowed, had bent its tail right back and 
forced it out through the gill -opening of its captor. 
Soon they do not shrink from assailing higher ani- 
mals, such as frogs, young waterfowl, and water-rats. 
They even pursue the water-rats into their subaqueous 
holes, and Eels are frequently found that have turned 
these into their own hiding-places. But vegetable 
substances, such as grains of corn, demonstrably enter 
into their diet"; and Eeddersen relates * 6 that at Copen- 
hagen it was a popular diversion^ to feed the Eels in 
a pond in Orsted’s Park with bits of bread. The vo- 
racity of the Eel thus renders it omnivorous. 
In this connexion we may consider an observation 
repeated on many occasions, but as often explained 
away or even ridiculed: — the Eel, like the above- 
mentioned Climbing Perches ( Labyrintliici ), voluntarily 
travels in quest of food by land. “The Eel is said 
sometimes by night to crawl out of the water on the 
fields where it finds lentils, peas, or beans sown”, wrote 
Albertos Magnus' in the 13th century. “This mig- 
ration”, wrote BociG in the 18th century, “explains 
the mysterious fact that in Prussia and Pomerania 
fish are caught on dry land and with the plough. 
On warm nights, when the Eels betake themselves to 
the peas, the peasants plough a few furrows along the 
water towards dawn, before the day lias broken; and 
these are the nets in which the Eels are taken. For, 
though the Eel can drag itself along on the grass, its 
retreat is cut off by the upturned sods. The rustics 
consider it a sign of approaching storm when the Eel 
quits the water for dry land.” The Royal Museum 
possesses in its collection of manuscripts a communi- 
cation made to Prof. B. Fries in 1836, and relating 
how the Dowager Countess B. M. Hamilton in the 
early part of the century instituted the most cautious 
observations of some Eels and caused their capture 
during their land excursions on her estate. They 
wandered of a night from Lake Hedenlunda into a 
field, and ate pea-pods “with a smacking sound, like 
that made by sucking-pigs when they are eating 
On investigation it was found that the pods were not 
gnawed in pieces or eaten up, but that the Eels only 
consumed the outer soft and juicy skin covering the 
young pods; and after this discovery the Eels, which 
were kept at Hedenlunda in a live-well, were fed with 
pea-pods.” The communication further contains a 
description of the acuteness with which the Eel ap- 
prehends the slightest noise, even on land, and the 
celerity with which it then retreats to its proper ele- 
Fig. 277. Intestinal worm (Ascaris labiata) of the Eel compared 
with a young Eel of the same size. After Benecke. 
ment. Ekstrom rejected all similar anecdotes as fa- 
bles; Nilsson' assumed that the Eel’s object in these 
journeys tvas the quest of a food more suitable than 
peas, namely slugs ( Limax ). This opinion may be 
more reasonable, but credence can no longer be re- 
fused to the above-cited observations, for we have 
evidence from other sources of the Eel’s taste for vege- 
table food. 
The propagation of the Eel was a riddle for thou- 
sands of years, and has given rise to the most mar- 
vellous conjectures. According to Aristotle 7 no one 
had found eggs in the Eel up to his time; but even 
then its intestinal canal had been observed to contain 
“hair-like or worm-like growths” (fig. 277), that were 
a See Trybom, Dausk Fiskeritidende, 1885, p. 411. 
6 Same periodica], 1885, p. 341; 1891, p. 397. 
c Quoted by Siebold, 1. c-., p. 314. 
d Wirtschaftl. Naturges chi elite von dem Konigreich Ost- und Westpreussen , 1784, quoted by Benecke, 1. c.. p. 175. 
e Skand. Fna , Fisk., p. 669. 
f Anim. Hist., lib. IV, cap. XI. 
