228 Appendices to Sixth Annual Report 



This table shows that 70 stomachs (42*7 per cent.) contained food, 

 of which Schizopods, particularly Nyctiphanes, formed by far the greater 

 bulk ; and the stomachs were those of fish taken not only during the 

 winter months, but also in the middle of summer. 



Amphipods were not of so frequent occurrence ; those present all 

 belonged to the Hyperiidse, and so far as could be made out, to one 

 species, Parathemisto oblivia, Kro/er. Of Hyperia galba, Mont. (H. 

 medusarum, Miill. ) which has been so frequently recorded as being found 

 in the stomachs of herring I did not observe a single specimen. 



Copepods only occurred in four samples of stomachs, which were all 

 sent from the West Coast, and, so far as could be made out from the 

 decomposed state of their contents, were almost all specimens of C alarms 

 finmarchicus. 



Young fish (sprats or herring) were observed in a number of stomachs, 

 principally from Stornoway. 



The results here brought out agree generally with those of previous 

 statistics. It is shown by this table, as by those given in former papers, 

 that Schizopods and pelagic Amphipods form the chief food of the her- 

 ring on the East Coast. No Copepods were observed in the above cases in 

 any of the stomachs sent from East Coast districts ; possibly the season of 

 the year when the stomachs were collected, viz., January and February, 

 may partly account for this total absence. On the other hand, Copepods 

 were observed among the contents of the stomachs of only four of the 

 samples from the West Coast, while Schizopods were very plentiful. The 

 absence of Copepods from so many of the stomachs from the West Coast 

 cannot be ascribed to the season of the year, for it will be seen from the 

 table that the herring were caught during May, June, July, August, 

 October, November and December • and, besides, the stomachs of one of 

 the four samples in which Copepods were observed, and in which they 

 were abundant, were those of herring caught off King's Cove, Arran, 

 about the middle of November. Thus the results brought out here do 

 not quite correspond with the general statement that, ' during summer 

 1 and autumn the Copepods supply the all-important food (of the herring) 

 ' on the West Coast.' x Copepods certainly formed a large part of the con- 

 tents of the herrings' stomachs examined at Tarbert, and the results 

 brought out there would seem to apply to Loch Fyne generally. In the 

 statistics given in the Fourth Annual Report, 2 it it is shown that in the 

 stomachs of herrings caught in the Loch Fyne district Copepods were 

 observed much more frequently than Schizopods during the summer 

 months, while in those examined in September, specimens of both these 

 groups occurred in nearly an equal number of stomachs. It appears so 

 far to be satisfactorily determined that, as regards the Loch Fyne district, 

 Copepods do form the greater part of the food of the herring during the 

 summer, and probably also during the later spring and early autumn 

 months ; the examination of the stomachs of herring from other parts of 

 the West Coast yield, however, somewhat different results. In the above 

 table, the list of the contents of the stomachs sent from the Broadford 

 district, which were collected during July, August, September and 

 October, show that the herring there had been feeding mostly upon 

 Schizopods; and the stomachs sent from the Stornoway district, and col- 

 lected during May, June and July, give a similar result; so that, accord- 

 ing to this evidence, Copepods hold a subordinate place as the food of the 

 herring in certain districts of the West Coast even during summer. In the 

 previously published statistics above referred to, it will be observed that 



1 Fourth Ann. Rep. Fish. Board for Scot, Appendix F, p. 128 (1886). 



2 Loc. cit. 



