ON THE FOOD OF YOUNG FISHES. 
By S. A. FORBES. 
I cannot learn that anything has been recorded re- 
specting the food of young fishes in this country,* nor 
have I been able to find anything npon this subject in 
such part of the ichthyological literature of Europe as 
is accessible to me. From the lack of all mention of the 
use of Entomostraca as the food of young fishes in the 
general review of the relations of these Crustacea to or- 
ganic nature given by Gerstaecker in Bronn’s Thier- 
Reichf I infer that whatever systematic investigation the 
subject may have received, the results have not attracted 
any general attention. 
This seems a surprising fact when one considers the 
vast amount of labor which has been expended upon this 
class of animals, and reflects for a moment upon the in- 
terest to science and to practical fish-culture of a knowl- 
edge of the food resources of fishes and of the competi- 
tions of the various species in the search for subsistence. 
Although I cannot yet treat this subject as fully as it 
deserves, the results of such study as I have been able to 
make, during the past season, of the contents of the stom- 
achs and intestines of small specimens, seem to justify 
this preliminary notice. 
It was early apparent, in the course of the investiga- 
tion, that the food of many fishes differs greatly accord- 
ing to age ; and it was soon found that the life of most of 
our fishes divides into at least two periods, and of many 
into three, with respect to the kinds of food chiefly taken. 
Further, in the first of these periods a remarkable similar- 
ity of food was noticed among species and families whose 
later food-habits are widely different. 
* Perhaps exception should be made of a note relating’ to the occurrence 
of diatoms in the stomachs of two young whitefishes, published in the 
appendix to the Report of the U. S. Fish Commissioner for 1872-3, p. 57. 
t Classen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, Band V, Abtheilung 1, ss. 
750 u. 1057. 
