ty On Tt, FOOD OF THE HALIBUT, WITH NOTES ON 
THE FOOD OF SCORPH#NA, PHYCIS BLENNOIDES, 
THE GARPIKE AND CHIMAERA MONSTROSA. By 
Tuomas Scort, LL.D., F.L.S. 
The stomachs of over one thousand specimens of halibut, Hippoglossus 
vulgaris (Flem.), have been examined during the period from September 
1909 to June 1910. The sizes of the halibut ranged from 18 inches to 5 
feet in length. They were captured in various parts of the North Sea and 
North Atlantic, and landed at the Aberdeen Fishmarket, and I desire to 
acknowledge my indebtedness to the fish merchants there who so kindly 
supplied the material for this research, and for the data concerning the sizes 
of the specimens supplied. 
It has been my experience, as it is the experience of others when engaged 
in a research of this kind, that even under the most favourable conditions a 
certain percentage of the fishes examined have either no food in their 
stomachs, or it is so much broken up and decomposed by the action of the 
gastric fluid—an action that does not cease till some time after the death of 
the fish—as to be indistinguishable. 
Of the halibut stomachs examined, about one-third, or nearly 34 per cent., 
were found to be empty, or the nature of the food could not be determined, 
which leaves about seven hundred, the contents of which could in some 
measure at least be identified. 
Tue FISHEs. 
A large proportion of the food observed consisted of Gadoids, chiefly 
haddocks and whitings; Norway pout (Gadus esmarkit) were also met with 
on several occasions. On the other hand, codfish and brassies were rarely 
noticed. Flat fishes, such as long rough dabs, were sometimes obtained, 
but not very often, and once or twice a lemon sole and witch soles 
occurred. 
THE CRUSTACEA. 
Crustacea were tolerably frequent, especially in the stomachs of the smaller 
halibut, but they also occurred in those of the larger examples. In the case 
of some of the larger halibut it was apparent that little effort had been 
exerted to crush the crustaceans found in their stomachs ; specimens, almost 
complete, of tolerably large crabs like Geryon tridens, Lithodes maia and 
Munida bamfica, their carapace only being somewhat softened by partial 
digestion, being present. Small crabs like Hyas coarctatus and Atelecyclus 
septemdentatus, but especially the former, were by no means rare, several of 
them being scarcely injured except that the shell was slightly softened. 
Norway lobsters (Wephrops norvegicus) were frequent, both in the stomachs 
of large and small fishes, full-grown as well as young specimens being 
moderately frequent, and not a few of the smaller as well as the larger 
examples having apparently been swallowed whole, only the shell being. 
slightly softened and shrivelled. Nephrops and hermit crabs—especially 
Hupagurus bernhardus—-were the more common among the crustacea 
observed. 
