154 BRITISH FISHERIES 



fishes given by Frank Buckland in 1879.^ This 

 account, which is very faulty, included nearly 

 all that was known at the time. When the 

 Scottish Fishery Board was instituted in 1882, 

 this ignorance of a most important subject was 

 keenly felt, and provision was at once made by 

 that body for scientific investigation. Valuable 

 observations were made by Professor Cossar Ewart 

 and by Brook and Matthews in 1883-5,^ on 

 the spawning and structure of the herring. A 

 very important step was taken by the institution 

 of a marine laboratory at St Andrews, on the 

 east coast of Scotland ; and so much work was 

 done there by Professor M'Intosh and his pupils, 

 that the former must be regarded as the pioneer 

 of systematic zoological research on the repro- 

 duction of North European marine fishes. 



The Spawning of Fishes 



Fishes are either male or female,^ and the ova 

 produced by the females are termed the spawn. 

 At a certain season in the year, which extends over 

 two or three months, and varies for each species, 

 the female sheds a certain number of eggs, which 

 are then fertilised by the male ; and thereafter 

 neither parent, as a rule, displays any solicitude 



1 In the Report on the Sea-fisheries of England and Wales, 1879, 

 by F. Buckland and Spencer Walpole, Appendix, p. 178. 



2 Scottish Fishery Board Reports for 1883-5. 



^ With occasional lapses into hermaphroditism. 



