THE ORGAN AND SENSE OF TASTE IN FISHES. 
251 
at this age are practically in the adult condition. During the winter they were fed 
on various kinds of meat chopped fine, sometimes cooked, but usually raw. 
In one small aquarium were kept half a dozen cat-fish, several ordinary “shiners” 
(Notrojpis sp. a ), and some small “spotted suckers” ( Mimjtrema melanops Kafinesque). 
Casual observations made during the winter while feeding showed that the shiners 
use the eyes chiefly in capturing their food. A bit of meat dropped into the water will 
usually be seized instantly and devoured before it has time to sink to the bottom of 
the tank. After it has fallen to the bottom it is apt to be long overlooked unless the 
fish happens upon it in its aimless wanderings, or unless its attention is called to it by 
the movements of other fishes which may be eating it. These fishes, when observed, 
are usually swimming about in the mid-depths of the tank, not resting near the 
bottom. I have observed the same behavior in Menidia and other large-eyed species. 
The behavior of the suckers was totally different. These fishes lie on the bottom 
most of the time unless disturbed, though if frightened they are very active, swim- 
ming powerfully and leaping out of the water. When food is thrown in they never 
pay the slightest attention, nor are they attracted by the sight of other fishes 
struggling for the meat. They are exceedingly shy and rarely eat when under 
observation. They lie quietly much of the time or swim slowly about, dragging - the 
lies iff lips of the highly protrusible mouth over the bottom of the tank. If they thus 
happen upon a bit of meat this is sucked into the month, worked over with the 
pharyngeal teeth apparently, and then often ejected forcibly from the mouth, to be 
again taken, perhaps, and the process repeated — a behavior very characteristic of the 
way they take the bait, I am told by fishermen. 
The cat-fish, like the suckers, keep strictly to the bottom of the tank. They are 
often quiet in the darkest corners or lying under debris, but much of the time 
are slowly dragging the mental and post-mental barblets along the bottom. 'The 
nasal barblets are held projecting well upward, and the maxillary barblets are 
directed outward and backward, their tips trailing the bottom or waving gently back 
and forth. They appear never to use their eyes directly for catching food to the 
slightest degree under the conditions of these experiments. No attention is paid to 
particles of food thrown into the water, even though they settle down within a few 
millimeters of the nose or barblet of the fish. The only case observed by me in 
which the eyes seem to serve in finding food is when a large piece of meat is thrown 
in and one fish begins to “worry” it. His movements may attract others until as 
many fish as can reach it are all tugging at it at once. If, however, a shadow is 
caused to fall upon the water, as by hovering the hand over the aquarium, the fishes 
are greatly disturbed and dart wildly about. They always seek the darkest corners 
of the tank and lie under dead leaves resting on the bottom of the tank for the most 
part, showing that the eyes are not by any means functionless and the fishes are 
strongly negatively phototactic. 
If the cat-fishes in the course of their aimless movements along the floor of the 
aquarium touch a bit of meat with the lips or barblets, it is instantly seized and swal- 
lowed. Food in the immediate neighborhood of the fish is not discovered at once, 
but after a time appears to affect the fish in some way, probably through the sense of 
aNolropia lias very small tuberculum impar and vagal lobes, the latter scarcely larger than In the cod, Menidia, and 
physoclistous fishes generally. From this one may safely infer that cutaneous terminal buds are not as highly developed 
in this form as in the larger cyprinoids. 
