Fishes. 3481 



They are generally driven away from this favourite spot by any storm 

 that may arise, and do not again, for that season, collect around it. 

 After the middle of August the herring swim lower in the water, and 

 generally disappear in September. They are observed to approach 

 the shores in shoals of miles in extent, but never to leave the Firth in 

 this orderly manner. 



Leach's Herring, Clupea Leachii. There can be little doubt that 

 the herring which is to be met with almost every winter in the Moray 

 Firth, in small numbers, is the one noticed by Yarrell under this name. 

 In the first week of February this year (1852), a small shoal of them 

 appeared near Burghead, from which a few crans were taken. They 

 agreed with Yarrell's description in the proportional length of the head, 

 but the body was not so deep as there stated. In two of three speci- 

 mens examined, the roe was the size of that of the common herring in 

 July ; the same may be said of the milt that was in the third. The 

 stomach of one was crammed with a Mysis, together with a few indi- 

 viduals of another Crustacean, but of the Edriophthalmous division. 



An experienced fisherman of Hopeman states that the appearance 

 of herrings in the Moray Firth in the winter months has been known 

 for ages ; that they are considered to be much stronger, somewhat of 

 greater size, and with larger scales than the summer herrings ; that 

 they do not, like the latter, swim near, and sport above the surface of 

 the water ; and that they never appear in shoals or in numbers at all 

 to be compared with the extent and quantity in which the common 

 species is found, but are to be met with dispersed throughout the 

 Firth, often in shallow water, trying to avoid the cod and other fishes 

 that prey upon them. In an economical point of view this species of 

 herring deserves more attention than it perhaps has hitherto met with 

 in this or in any other part of Britain where it occurs. 



The Sprat, Clupea Sprattus. " Garvies." Abundant in the east- 

 ern part of the Firth, towards the end of the herring-fishery season, 

 and after this they are found advancing westerly, towards the more 

 sheltered parts, some years in great numbers, — often about Campbel- 

 ton and Fort George. They are caught in small-meshed nets ; and 

 are used both for food, and for bait on the fishermen's lines. Their 

 position is discovered by flocks of gulls hovering over it. At one time 

 there was an attempt made to prohibit the fishing for " Garvies " in 

 the Firth, under the idea that they were the young of the common her- 

 ring ; but the fishermen resisted successfully, urging, among less sci- 

 entific arguments, what is now universally allowed, that they were a 

 distinct species. 



X. z 



