NORTH SKA INVESTIGATIONS. 



19 



numerous, and had obviously the character of dead yolked eggs. In 

 one 11 1 in. long, no granular masses were seen. 



Nearly all these fish were crammed with food only partially digested. 

 In most cases this consisted of Lamellibranch remains, broken shells and 

 flesh. In many of the stomachs there were a number of long white 

 muscular masses 1 to 2 in. long. I identified these as the " feet " of 

 Solcn, having found them sometimes connected with shells and remains 

 of the entire animal, but many stomachs were full of the muscular 

 masses, with no shells in either stomach or intestine. It appears, 

 therefore, that the plaice bites off the foot of the larger Salens without 

 swallowing the whole animal ; the entire Salens present were small. 

 Less frequently there were present Polychaeta (usually Nereis sp.), 

 crabs {Portunus sp. of small size), brittle-stars {Amphiura sp.), and in 

 one case a Nemertean, apparently Carinclla. Five of the fish con- 

 tained nothing recognisable, of the other 50 



On the following day, March 21st, another voyage of small plaice 

 was landed from the same ground, and I bought a sample. I had the 

 smallest selected from four boxes, and the sizes and sexes were found 

 to be as follows : 



6 in. 

 7„ 

 8 „ 



110 



77 



I examined the ovaries of two specimens — one 6^ in., one 7f in. — and 

 saw no trace of the granular masses. The food was the same as before. 



On April 1st a steam trawler landed 10 boxes of large plaice, and 9 

 of smaller, caught on the western shoal of the Dogger Bank, at a depth 

 of 9 fathoms. I bought a sample of the smaller: there were 19 of 

 them in all. The results of examination were : 



Males. Females. 



1 immature ? 



2 ? 

 2 ^ 



1 spent 1 „ ? 



12 



c 2 



