laid on which future work may more readily he built, I shall 

 now give an outline of the more important observations made 

 and data collected, premising that such are admittedly im- 

 perfect and subject to revision when further information be 

 available. 



C. — The spmvning season and migrations of Indian Sardines. 



63. Excluding the anadromous Hilsa (Olnpea ilisha)^ the 

 three most important members of the herring family in Indian 

 waters are the three sardines : C. fimbriata, O. longiceps and 0. 

 We ; of these the two first are by far the most important being 

 respectively the chala matthi and the nalla mqtthi or u oil 

 sardine' of the Malabar coast aud the buthai and erabai of 

 South Canara. 



64. The oil sardine (0. longice_ps, Cuv. et Val.) is of the 

 greatest value for many purposes ; it is used extensively as 

 food in the fresh and the cured condition, is the source of an 

 excellent oil invaluable in the jute industry and considered a 

 great specific when smeared over their boats by West Coast 

 fishermen and boatmen against the attacks of the ship-worm ; 

 as fertilizer for tobacco, coffee, tea and other crops the excess 

 over local requirements is employed largely in years of super- 

 abundance when it is shipped abroad extensively, principally 

 to Ceylon and Japan. It is also noteworthy as the species 

 best suited for canning. 



65. On the West Coast of India this sardine appears in 

 quantity during normal seasons towards the end of June. Shoals 

 arriving at this period consists entirely of adult individuals with 

 the reproductive products, roe and milt, well advanced ; shoals 

 with ripe rocs continue to be met with even till the end of 

 August. The spawning period is one of considerable duration 

 and it appears certain that there is considerable variation in the 

 date at which the gonads arrive at maturity in the members of 

 separate shoals. It would seem, indeed, that the shoals arrive 

 inshore in the order at which these gonads ripen ; that those 

 sardines whose gonads ripen first, are the earliest arrivals and 

 the rest in order of maturation of their reproductive products. 



66. Fry of 1 inch in length have been noticed at Calicut 

 towards the end of July, while I have record of a large catch 

 of very small oil sardines averaging 1| inch long, at Teliicherry 

 on 6th August 1908; on the day preceding the capture of the 

 latter fry a great shoal of adults, full growu and ready to spawn, 

 passed Teliicherry from north to south and yielded a haul of 

 250 maunds to the fishermen. This shoal was followed at 



