THE FOOD OF FISHES. 14$ 



or milt, leaving little if any provision for an exten- 

 sion of the stomach such as is seen when the fish is 

 in the condition called in some places "gut-poke" 

 herring, i.e., when its stomach is greatly enlarged 

 with food while in the roeless and miltless state. 

 This being the case, the source of their food supply 

 can be no guide to their whereabouts, at least 

 during their abstaining time of about two-thirds 

 of the year. When we consider the multitudes of 

 enemies that the herring have, both of land and 

 water, that greedily feed upon them all the year, 

 from the earliest stages till the adult condition, we 

 may reasonably believe that the portion which goes 

 to mans share must be but a small fraction of the 

 whole. It therefore seems clear that any restric- 

 tion which may be put on the mode or time of 

 fishing can be of little avail. Perhaps the best 

 protection the herring have from the ravages of 

 man is their erratic habits. If the long-line fishing 

 had more support it might be advantageous, as the 

 fishes taken by that means are known to include 

 such species as are most destructive to the herring. 

 The herring, on the other hand, do not prey on the 

 kinds of fish taken by the long-line (or, if they do, 

 it can only be for a very short season), and their 

 increase cannot therefore be injurious to these 

 fishes ; but the increase of the long-line fishes 

 must be excessively destructive to the herring, 

 which in all stages of growth are preyed upon by 

 them. 



It is, I believe, commonly supposed that herring, 

 when after spawning they begin again to take food, 

 retire to greater depths ; and there can be no doubt 

 that they do so, as they are often found with their 

 stomachs packed full of the schizopod JYyctiphanes 

 norvegica, a small crustacean whose habitat in the 

 adult state is rarely less than 40 fathoms. In the 

 Firth of Clyde this has been amply confirmed by 

 the dredgings of the steam - yacht Medusa (of the 

 Granton Marine Station), which seldom failed to 



