THE HERRING FAMILY 1 63 



traced out. The newly hatched larvae were obtained at St. 

 Andrews in March, and specimens a little older were obtained 

 in abundance in April. It is probable that the majority of these 

 young herring pass the first year of life in the upper reaches of 

 the Forth, but they have not been examined. In December, 

 however, it was found ^ that considerable numbers of herring 

 3l to 5| inches long were taken in the sprat fishing of the Firth 

 of Forth. These must be considered to be derived from the Isle 

 of May spawning in the previous spring. 



At Plymouth, again, the history of the herring hatched in 

 January, February, and March has not been completely traced. 

 In 1895 the larvae occurred in the tow-nets in January. In May, 

 1889, a large number of small herring were taken in a ground 

 seine in the Cattewater, the estuary of the Plym ; these measured 

 4'3 to 5 "5 inches in length, and were judged to be year-old fish, 

 hatched the previous spring in February and March. In October 

 herrings of 5 to 8^ inches are abundant in the Hamoaze, and 

 these are probably the mixed broods of two years. 



The history of the summer or sea herring is still less satis- 

 factorily known than that of the winter or spring herring. Ac- 

 cording to the observations of the naturalists at Kiel, the young 

 of the autumn herring are taken mixed with those of the spring 

 herring in July and August, in the bays of the Western Baltic. 

 These fish are 2-5 to 37 inches long at that time when they are 

 8 to 10 months old. The German naturalist Heincke found 

 that the larva of the autumn herring was different in shape from 

 that of the spring herring, and that its transformation took place 

 later, when it was of a larger size, so that it was never less than 

 2 inches long when the perfect form was reached. No observa- 

 tions of any importance have been made on the young of the 

 summer and autumn herring in this country. It may be men- 

 tioned, however, that among these herring in the fishing season 

 a considerable proportion of mature ripe fish are only 8 to SI 

 inches long. These in Scotland are usually called matties, a 

 term which is sometimes supposed to be applied to herrings that 

 are not full of roe, but immature. These are really the smallest 

 mature, and may be taken to show the size at which maturity 

 is reached in the autumn herring, the age being as before 

 mentioned two years. 



1 S/>rai Fishing on the East Coast of Scotland in the Winter of 1883-84. 

 Second Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



M 2 



