of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 239 
In this Table it will be noticed, especially in the columns in which the 
various collections in each month are summed up, that these small 
gurnards were got only in certain months, viz., August, September, 
October, November, December, February, and May. None under 5em. 
were got in November, and none under 45cm. in December, 
while in February the smallest was 6‘7em., and in May 7-9cm. They do 
not appear in the collections before August, and the Table shows that 
their growth at this stage is fairly rapid. 
In my former paper I gave a Table of all the small gurnards under 3 
inches which were obtained by the fine-meshed trawl-nets of the ‘“ Gar- 
land,” arranged according to mouths, and it may be summarised here. 
None under 3 inches (7'6cm) were caught between May and September— 
a fact also borne out by the above Table—and the greater number were 
obtained in October and September. ‘The absence of the small gurnards 
was not due to hauls of the net not having been made in the intervening 
months, since 27 were made in June, July, and August. The number 
caught in each month in which hauls with the fine net were made, and 
the average number of gurnards under 3 inches taken per haul are given 
in the following Table :— 
Jan. | Apr. | May. June.| July.) Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | 
Number of Hauls, . | 12 | 41 34 | 10 6 Th. P2895 13 | 
Number of Gurnards | | | | 
under3in.(7‘6em.), | 1 | 3 8 | - =. 2 30 24 | 
| | | 
Average per Haul, . 0:08 | 0:07 | 0°23} 00) 00 | 0:0) | RO:09R i l2e ica 
The conclusion drawn from the facts was that those taken in January, 
April, and May belonged to the previous year, and that the absence of 
gurnards under 3 inches in June, July, and August was due to the 
growth in summer taking them above that size. 
It was also concluded that the gurnards ranging about 6 inches (15cm.) 
in length in the spring were from 18 months to 2 years old; that the 
gurnard did not reach maturity until the third year; and that there 
appeared to be annual groups differing in length by about two inches from 
each other—the measurements having been in inches and fractions of an 
inch. 
In the coilections referred to in the present paper, the early groups are 
sometimes distinctly marked off from one another, and little difficulty has 
been experienced in determining the rate of growth of this fish. 
It may be mentioned that the difficulty in regard to the prolonged 
spawning period, aud the summer or winter season for the early and late 
larvee to which reference has been made, is counteracted by a rather slow 
rate of growth on the part of this fish, and possibly by the growth 
in the winter not being retarded to the extent that is usual 
amongst other young fishes. In this respect the young gurnard 
offers a striking contrast to the young plaice or dab, which may be even 
shorter in early spring after passing through the cold winter months than 
they were at the ouset of winter. In the latter case the habitat is in the 
shallow water, exposed to the changes in the air temperature and varying 
with it, whereas the gurnard is pre-eminently a migratory fish at all 
stages, and leaves the inshore waters for deeper water, where the tempera- 
ture is higher, in autumn, 
