OCCURRENCE OF LARVAL HERRING AT THE SURFACE. 185 



Mr. Dunn's letter requires no introduction ; I have merely to say that 

 some well-preserved material forwarded to me proves the correctness 

 of his identification. The larval herring are at most a few days old, some 

 appearing to be quite recently hatched. Mr. Dunn also sent, at my 

 request, some pilchards taken about the same place a few days later. 

 This fish decomposes very rapidly, and in any case larval herring would 

 be hardly recognisable after being subjected a few hours to the action of 

 the gastric secretions. Though I found no larvte, the stomach of one 

 pilchard contained unmistakable herring ova, some of which contained 

 far advanced embryos. The fish must therefore have been feeding on 

 the herring spawn at the bottom, a habit of the pilchard previously 

 unknown, at any rate to myself. I do not know of any previous record 

 of the presence of such enormous numbers of very early herring larvae 

 at the surface, nor of their serving as food to the pilchard. Considering 

 the importance of both species, Mr. Dunn's evidence is most valuable. 



E. W. L. H. 



