title: The ontogeny of feeding behaviour in four species of centrarchid fish.
abstract: Relatively little work has been done on the ontogeny of feeding behaviour in fish. One of the aims of this study was to compare the ontogeny of feeding behaviour in four species of centrarchid fish of diverse feeding guilds. A second aim was to test Mayr's hypothesis that the locomotory acts involved in the ontogeny of feeding behaviour would be stereotyped. All four species initially displayed five feeding acts, with three of the acts disappearing from the repertoire at various intervals. The disappearance of the acts appeared to be related to the size and not to the age of the fry. The acts decreased in frequency as the fry aged and differences among the species in frequencies were minimal. The data supported Mayr's hypothesis but a modifying corollary was added to account for changes due to maturation.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Biology, Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Colgan