198 Part ITI. —Twenty-first Annual Report 
cent., lesser weever ; two, or 1°5 per cent., Norway pout; and two, or 1°35 
per cent., Lumpenus. Among flat-fishes, common dabs numbered 
eighteen, or 31 per cent. ; solenettes seven, or 12°] per cent. ; long rough 
dabs six, or 10-4 per cent.; plaice two, or 3°4 per cent. ; flounders three, 
or 5°2 per cent.; and witches one, or 2 per cent. The percentage of 
each species of the total species identified is as follows :— 
ps 7 
~ rQ 
> a 3 SS 6 
B70 QA | ep aq 
se eT fee ec fo ee a Berle lie aicd | avs n |S 
wie | 1S | wo @ ee eae Spears |e om) || IF 
a (e) a q re o ; CS Oo 5 | fa iro} 
S] as) at oS a E : 3 H 3 = 3 f= o fa) Db 
AS ais g FE = |) a o > om Ss a Al Ss (S| E 
iol ere seats oral Mole eat Wea eto a eem|| Se || = 
SSS Wis |e los al S| Seo a es. | Sec) |S see imeem 
Syl == (bi N= coals ta eae cost een er) alee eo emi eras) (pti, | Ss 
4:4 13-1 |24-7 | 2°2 | 5°7 | 1-5 |14°5| 2:2 | 0:7 | 1-5 | 1°5 | 1-4 J138-1! 5:1 | 4:3 | 0-7 | 2:2 | 0:7 
It thus appears that, so far as the anglers investigated are concerned, 
the principal food consisted of whitings, sand-eels, haddocks, and common 
dabs, and in smaller amount of herrings, solenettes, and others. The 
Table, however, shows that the proportions differ on the different grounds, 
and at different seasons. In Aberdeen Bay and the Moray Firth whitings 
and common dabs formed the staple diet, and then haddocks ; no codlings 
were distinguished in the 382 stomachs from these localities. In the 
deep water off the Shetlands haddocks appear to form a more important 
constituent than whitings, and among flat-fishes common dabs and long 
rough dabs. On the offshore grounds, also, codlings enter more largely 
into the diet of the angler. 
The proportion of “sand- eels, herrings, and solenettes is surprisingly 
large. Herrings were got in three months, July, September, and Decem- 
ber, and it is probable from the abundance of this fish at the bottom at 
certain times that it forms a fair proportion of the food of the angler. 
Sand-eels were got only in two months, namely in July in Aberdeen Bay 
and in November in the Moray Firth. It forms a larger part of the food 
of predaceous fishes than might be expected. The number found in single 
stomachs of anglers varied from one or two to twenty-three. The 
solenette was only procured in the stomachs of anglers taken in the 
Moray Firth in July, when they seem to be abundant in the 
inshore waters there. Its small size enables it to escape from the 
trawl-net as a rule, but it is occasionally taken, and more commonly in 
August than in July. The presence of Lumpenus, found in the stomachs 
of an angler from the Forth in July and another from the deep water in 
September, probably indicates a greater abundance of this form than is 
commonly supposed. In both cases the anglers were small, viz. nine 
inches and nine-and-a-half inches; one had two, and the Lumpenus 
measured 83, 83, and 94 inches long, or about as long as the anglers. 
The small anglers, indeed, capture fishes sometimes of considerable size. 
Thus, one a little over six inches had swallowed a round-fish 4? inches 
iong ; one of seven inches a haddock of six-and-a-half inches ; one of 
eight-and-a-half inches a round-fish of six-and-three-quarter inches ; and 
other small anglers had gulped flat-fishes of four inches. At stages much 
younger than any observed they must evidently be capable of swallowing 
fishes of a size proportionally large compared with theirown. The young 
anglers got off Caithness had been feeding on sand-eels. One angler of 
eleven-and-three- -qnarter inches had twenty-three in its stomach. 
JT have already tated that the great majority of the fishes found in the 
