6 



season of ripening. The gurnard thus has a life history 

 similar to that of the northern migrants described in the last 

 report. 



A few further interesting recaptures of marked dabs, lobsters 

 and a crab are reported, which add to our knowledge of the 

 migration of the mature in these species. 



The paper by Mr. Storrow on the investigations relating 

 to the herrings, deals with part of the work done at the 

 Laboratory last year. A syno2:)si3 is given of the particulars 

 relating to size, age and maturity of the samples, which totalled 

 about 3,200 herrings. The Dogger Bank herrings on this 

 occasion could not be investigated, as the region was closed to 

 fishing, and this was the more regrettable as in the previous 

 years we had found that the homogeneity of the school was 

 evidenced by the dominance of successive year groups amongst 

 the immature. The herrings of the Northumberland and 

 Yorkshire coastal waters were subjected however to a careful 

 analysis, according to the method agreed upon. Attention is 

 drawn to the difference in age-composition between the North- 

 umberland and Yorkshire trawled herrings, and to the fact that 

 year after year the Northumberland herring present a large 

 percentage with three winter rings. 



Mr. Herbert Paul has contributed an account of his work on 

 the autotomy of the limbs in Decapod Crustacea. He has 

 described the result of his investigations leading to interesting 

 conclusions as to the structural and physiological features which 

 bring about the weakening at the breaking plane ; and the 

 difference as to the motive between Macrura and Brachyura. 



