62 



THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



all the more conspicuous in the English records, where the 

 fish have been for the most part captured at or near the very 

 entrance to the rivers. On the other hand, we have no clear 

 evidence of a second maximum, to coincide with the descent 

 from the rivers to the sea ; why this should be so we do not 

 know, and it is of little use to conjecture. 



As regards local distribution there is not much to be 

 said. The chart of our Aberdeen captures is very different 

 from anything that we have had to do with in dealing with 

 the deep-water fishes which we have hitherto considered. 

 These Aberdeen records of the Sturgeon all come from the 



Fig. 2. Distribution of the Sturgeon, from the Aberdeen Records. 



comparatively shallow waters round the east and north of 

 Scotland, and all lie within a comparatively small area in, or 

 just outside, the north-western corner of the North Sea 

 (Fig. 2). One half of our records (25 out of 49) lie in the 

 areas immediately adjoining the east coast of Scotland, from 

 Peterhead to the Firth of Forth (areas XXIII, XXVIII, 

 XXIX); and eighteen of these, or more than one-third of 

 the whole, lie within area XXIII, just off the Aberdeenshire 

 coast. Within this latter area the Sturgeon has been taken 

 in wellnigh every month of the year ; the largest number of 

 records in any one month is for January (4) ; but our 



