The Mena weekly star., 1898-01-12
voRAclTY OF THE coDFIsH.
Queer Things Which Are Found
 Sometimes in Their Stomachs.


 There was recently printed in the Sun dispatch from Essex, Conn.,, tell ing of the finding of a watch in the stomach of a codfish. That incident Illustrates the voracity of the codfish, and many stories of the same kind are related in "The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States"
 Goldfish feed upon all marine ani- mals smaller than themselves which are found in the same waters with them and are digestible," says the writer. 'It would seem useless to give catalogue of the species which have been discov- cred in their stomachs. For a long pe- riod of years, before our naturalists learned to use the hand dredge, fa- vorite place in which to search for the rare invertebrates of the deep water was the fish dealers store, and from the stomachs of codfish scores of shells new to science have been taken. Since the introduction of improved methods of deep sea research this mode of collect ing has been somewhat less prosperous, but even at the present time many im- portant additions to zoology are year ly made by the aid of this omnivorous animal.
 Goldfish swallow bivalve shells of the largest size, like the great sea clans, which are a favorite article of food on certain portions of the coast; for in- stance, in Ipswich bay great beds of empty shells of the sea clam, Mactra ovalis, may be found upon the bottom. These shells are 'nested,' the smaller inside of the larger, sometimes six or seven in set, having been packed to- gether in this compact manner in the stomachs of the codfish after the soft parts have been digested out. Some of them had shreds of the mussels remain ing in them and were quite fresh, hav- ing evidently been but recently ejected by the fish. In Dana's Geology are mentioned great banks of dead shells off the island of Grand Manan, which doubtless originated in the same man. ner. Mir. w IT. Dall found some similar beds on the coast of Alaska which he attributed to the walrus, but which are more probably the remains of mollusks eaten by the codfish.
 "They feed also upon crabs of all | kinds, Holsters and starfish, and have been seen at the surface catching the potato beetles and June bugs which have drifted out from the shore. It is said that they succeed occasionally in capturing a duck. The Gloucester Tel egraph of May 6, 1857, reports the Vine yard Gazette as chronicling the fact that one James Osborne took codfish at the South side which weighed over 60 pounds. On dressing it two full | grown ducks Gold squaws) were found in its entrails. They were quite fresh, having most of their feathers on. Cod fish vary their diet by browsing upon carrageen, or Irish moss, which grows on the lodges near the shore. In search ing at the bottom for shells and worms codfish often pick up objects which can hardly be regarded as nutritious. A very amusing catalogue of such objects might be included in this chapter, in which would be enumerated articles such as scissors. brass oil cans, potato parings, corncobs and the head of a rubber dolf. The finding of finger rings and fragments of oil clothing and the heel of boot inside of large codfish has suggested the idea that sometimes they swallow the fishermen.
 "A wedding ring which belonged to Pauline Burnam, an English lady who was lost in the steamship Anglo-Saxon, wrecked off Chance Cove, N. F., in 1861, was recently restored to her relatives by St. Johns fisherman, who found the ring in the entrails of codfsh. The lucky fisherman received present of z 50 for restoring the highly-prized me mento to the lady's son. (Boston Jour nal, July 6, 1S71.)
 Stones of considerable size are often found in their stomachs, and fishermen have theory that this is sign of an approaching storm and that the fish thus take in ballast to enable them to remain ct the bottom when the waters are troubled. It is more likely that these stones are swallowed on account of sea anemones or other edible sub stances which may be attached to them, in just the same manner that the shells of mollnsks are taken in for the sake of the nutritious parts which they con- | tain. ."-N. Y. Sun.