116 HABITS OF THE HERRING. 



Fyne above Otter Spit, and to give the Secretary of 

 State the power to prohibit the use of trawl nets in 

 other narrow waters less than one mile wide. 



'' 11. It is also desirable to prohibit the shooting of 

 any movable net between sunrise and sunset. 



" 12. We think it likewise desirable to empower the 

 Secretary of State to prohibit the use of a beam-trawl 

 in certain places, though the necessity for such a pro- 

 hibition has in no particular case been fully established 

 to our satisfaction. 



"13. The Sea Birds Preservation Act, protecting 

 gannets and other predaceous birds which cause a vast 

 annual destruction of herrings, should be repealed in so 

 far as it applies to Scotland."' 



In the appendix to this report I have written a 

 ^chapter on the natural history of the herring, in which 

 I have attempted to embody the information given in 

 the evidence as well as my own personal observations 

 relative to the anatomy and physiology, enemies, food, 

 migrations, shoals, spawning, growth, &c., of this most 

 valuable commercial fish. I have only space for one or 

 two of my remarks. 



THE SHOALS OF HERRINGS. 



It seems a special adaptation of Providence that the 

 herrings should be gregarious, and that they should go 

 intuitively and voluntarily in large herds, as we should 

 say in writing about land animals. A herring weighs 

 on an average a little over five ounces ; if they were 

 not a gregarious fish they would not be available for the 

 food of man, and the capture of them would be difficult 

 and expensive ; but as they are gregarious, vast quanti- 

 ties of good and nutritous food can be captured readily. 



