of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



81 



narrow spent ovary having eggs '15 mm. in diameter there was an 

 apparently big range of size among the eggs. The yolked eggs became 

 visible to the naked eye as white granules in the ovarian tissue when 

 about "3 mm. in diameter. 



During the month most of the spents had a large quantity of abdominal 

 fat. The spents got at Laggan, Loch Fyne, appeared to be, on the whole, 

 fatter than those got at Sanda, Campbeltown. Among the herrings got at 

 the latter place the smaller herrings have comparatively the greater 

 quantity of fat, but their reproductive organs are not further advanced 

 than those of -the larger herrings. 



Summer Spawner. — An ovary containing eggs -35 mm. in diameter was 

 red iu colour and soft. A whitish network was visible in the stroma, A 

 large proportion of the eggs were clear, only a small proportion being 

 yolked. This fish had pi-obably spawned before. A testis was plump, 

 tense, pink or white in colour. The honeycomb structure is filled with 

 corpuscles. In a testis 15 mm. wide, which was nearly ripe, there was an 

 albuminous, corpusculated matter. 



Nine full herrings, viz., 1 $ and 8 6, were obtained. 



Immature. — The immatui-e condition is shown in a small, firm, compact 

 I'eproductive organ. The fishes from the Clyde classified during June as 

 immature did not exceed 23 cm. in length, but some from Castlebay 

 measured up to 28 cm. in length. Except iu the case of a few specimens, 

 the immature herrings had a large quantity of fat. 



In many cases it was diflScult to get the actual measurement of the eggs, 

 because the ovaries were often saturated with oil from the abdominal fat. 

 It is not therefore possible to insist strongly on measurements to -1 mm. 

 in the case of the largest eggs in the ovary, as they were inclined, under 

 these conditions, to swell up. When the eggs are all very small, as, for 

 example, when the ovary is about to ripen, the large eggs may be few in 

 number, and here post-mortem changes may give a larger size than is war- 

 ranted to these eggs. AVhere the ovary contains a large quantity of yolked 

 eggs, an average size of these is taken to represent the ovary. The error is 

 likely to be comparatively larger in the very small ovaries than in the large. 



