The Food of Fishes. 
65 
cut. These had eaten, respectively, thirty-nine per cent, 
and twenty-eight per cent, of small fishes — partly Cy- 
prinidae and partly undetermined Acanthopteri. The re- 
mainder of their food was composed chiefly of Palingenia 
larvae. One October specimen had eaten two larvae of the 
large “helgramite”, Corydalus cornutus. Although these 
fishes were taken directly from the seine, and opened 
upon the spot, the food in their stomachs did not average 
more than a fourth of the quantity in those taken in early 
spring. The weather during both these months was un- 
comfortably cold, with falling snow, and the food of 
these specimens probably gives a correct hint of the win- 
ter food of the species. 
Fourteen of the above were Pomoxys nigromaculatus 
and twelve P. annularis — one not having been deter- 
mined. 
Summary of the Family. 
For the purpose of a comparative recapitulation of the 
above data respecting the food of the sunfishes,. I have 
prepared three condensed tables, showing, upon the same 
page, the food of the different genera in parallel columns. 
The first table exhibits the food of the youngest speci- 
mens, the second, of those of intermediate size, and the 
third, of those which may properly be regarded as ma- 
ture. 
By an inspection of the first table, it will be seen that 
the thirty specimens, one inch long and under, represent- 
ing eight genera, which appear thereon, have eaten little 
else than Entomostraca and larvae of Chironomus — these* 
two elements amounting to ninety -three per cent, of the 
food. The only exception to this rule (that of the rock 
bass) is apparent rather than real. The large percentage 
of Neuropterous larvae appearing under the name of that 
species is a technical ratio, inserted only for the sake of 
consistency, being based upon the fact that one of the 
specimens examined contained no food except a few 
traces of some indeterminable minute larvae of that 
older. The minor differences in the food of the generic 
groups are doubtless due to differences of locality, and 
the like. That Ostracoda, for example, were found only 
