228 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



withstand the marking operations with much success. 

 Both dabs and soles have strongly ctenoid scales. 

 These are probably used to some extent for purposes of 

 locomotion, and the fishes no doubt drag themselves along 

 the sea bottom by means of their rough skin, and in so 

 doing cause the attached label and button to chafe the 

 flesh and cause a bad wound. Soles, and probably dabs, 

 are also more susceptible to slight skin abrasions than 

 plaice or flounders. 



As before, it is no doubt the case that marked fishes 

 have been caught and were not reported. I have heard 

 of several such cases. Capt. Wright, Chief Fishery 

 Officer at Fleetwood, reported the finding of several 

 marked fishes, and information as to one reached me from 

 a friend in Cairo. In most of these cases identification of 

 the number of the label was impossible, so they are not 

 included in the lists given in this report. 



The summary table on pages 230 and 231 shews the 

 stations of 1906, the numbers of fishes liberated and 

 returned and the percentages of recapture. It also 

 includes the numbers of marked fish liberated in 1904-5 

 which have been returned during the past year. Before 

 discussing the experiments of 1906, the latter may be 

 considered. 



It will be most convenient for the reader if I present 

 the results of the experiments in the form adopted by the 

 German investigators, working under the International 

 Fishery Investigations Scheme. 



" The analyses of size of fish " give the numbers of 

 fishes marked and liberated. Sizes were always measured 

 to the nearest quarter of an inch. 



For convenience, the headings of the columns in the 

 tables giving particulars of the fishes returned are 

 numbered as follows : — 



