of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 39 



spawning the fish is thin, and, as a rule, shows no fat. Some recent spents 

 do, however, have some abdominal fat. 



Summer Spawners. — Although the majority of the herrings in the Clyde 

 and at Stornoway are winter spawners, there is, however, a considerable 

 proportion of summer spawners. Thus in the sample from Upper Loch 

 Fyne several male herrings were practically ripe. Of the Stornoway 

 herrings two males were full ; one was appai'ently partly spent. 



The full summer spawners got off Aberdeen were not actually spawning. 

 The herring may not spawn immediately after the eggs become clear. 



The full herrings from Shetland were oily, but not nearly so much so as 

 the Loch Fyne herrings. 



It has proved impossible to divide up the herrings sharply into summer 

 and winter spawners. In localities where the winter spawners pre- 

 ponderate, a few herrings having eggs •? mm. in diameter would be looked 

 upon as precocious winter spawners, whereas if they occurred in .an East 

 Coast sample they would be regarded as late summer spawners — viz., 

 autumn spawners. 



The extent to which the grading of one class into the other occurs on 

 both the West and East Coasts is shown in the following Table, where the 

 herrings are arranged in the order of the development of the ovaries, in so 

 far as that is indicated by the diameter of the ova : — 



[Table 



