of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 229 



of the herrings' stomachs from the Stornoway district collected in April, 

 May and June, Schizopods were more or less abundant in twenty-eight, 

 and Copepods in sixteen, of the samples examined ; and in those from 

 Loch. Broom district, collected in March, October, November and 

 December, there were no Copepods at all. This, again, shows a prepon- 

 derance of Schizopods over Copepods as constituting the food of the 

 herring ; so that, with the exception of the Loch Fyne district, it would 

 appear from these statistics that on the West as well as on the East Coast 

 of Scotland Schizopods are at least of no less importance than the Cope- 

 pods, as forming part of the food of the herring, even during the sumuier 

 months. 



Another point relating to the herring and its food may be noticed here. 

 The experiments with the tow-net round a considerable part of both the 

 East and the West Coasts of Scotland, carried out by instructions from the 

 Fishery Board during recent years, have shown that the young Euphau- 

 sidse and the pelagic Amphipods and Copepods are not nearly as plentiful 

 in deep water as they are near the surface, or at least within a few fathoms 

 of the surface ; and these being the organisms that the herring almost 

 exclusively feed on, it follows that when herring are feeding they do not 

 go into deep water, but keep near the surface where their food is most 

 abundant. 



An interesting fact brought out by the published statistics already 

 referred to, is the total absence of the Hyperiidse in the stomachs from 

 the West Coast — not a single specimen of these Amphipods being observed 

 among the contents of any of those examined ; and in the table given here 

 these Amphipods are also equally unrepresented. Why they should be 

 so frequent on the East Coast, and so very rare on the West, is a rather 

 puzzling question. 



Another fact perhaps worth noticing, is that in all but one of the 

 stomachs which came from King's Cove, Arran, and which were distended 

 with food, the lower part (nearly half) was tilled with Copepods only, while 

 the upper part was exclusively filled with Schizopods. This abrupt and 

 complete change in the nature of the food is interesting, for from the well- 

 preserved condition of the organisms, little time can have elapsed between 

 the relinquishing of the one, and the taking to the other kind of food. A 

 possible explanation is that the Copepods were being attacked by a shoal 

 of Nyctijphanes when the herrings fell in with them, and that the latter 

 after passing through among the Copepods met with the Schizopods, 

 feeding freely on each in turn. 



Dr Mobius has suggested 'that the herring does not discriminate 

 ' between one form of food and another when feeding on the more minute 

 ' species, but that the swarms of microscopic animals which are diffused 

 ' through the sea are drawn into the mouth along with the water of 

 ' respiration, and are retained while the water passes out through the 

 ' opercula.' While it is quite possible that some of the organisms observed 

 in the stomachs of herrings may be captured in that way, yet there can 

 be no doubt that herrings intentionally pursue and feed on such minute 

 creatures as the Copepoda. I have frequently seen over 200 herrings 

 feeding freely on them, pursuing and capturing them. I have also on 

 many occasions, when at Rothesay, gone out with the tow-net and col- 

 lected such forms for the purpose of feeding the herrings kept alive iu 

 the tanks j and it was interesting to observe how quickly they noticed the 

 presence of the minute Crustaceans, even though transferred to their tank 

 with as little disturbance as possible, and how after all the organisms 

 seemed to have been captured, a few herring, possibly more hungry than 

 the others, would continue to search about the tank, and eagerly pounce 

 on any Copepod that had previously escaped notice. 



t 2 



