116 Extract from Report on the Acts relating to 
records kept by the Fishery Officers at different stations,* and 
partly from other sources ; and our clear conclusion from all this 
evidence is, that the herring spawns at two seasons of the year, 
viz., in the spring and in the autumn. We have hitherto met 
with no case of full or spawning herring being found in any 
locality during what may be termed the solstitial months, namely, 
June and December ; and it would appear that such herring are 
never (or very rarely) taken in May or the early part of July, in 
the latter part of November or the early part of January. But 
a spring spawning certainly occurs in the latter part of January, 
in February, in March, and in April; and an autumn spawning 
in the latter part of July, in August, September, October, and 
even as late as November. Taking all parts of the British coast 
together, February and March are the great months for the spring 
spawning, and August and September for the autumn spawning. 
It is not at all likely that the same fish spawn twice in the 
year; on the contrary, the spring and the autumn shoals are 
probably perfectly distinct ; and if the herring, according to the 
hypothesis advanced above, comes to maturity in a year, the 
shoals of each spawning season would be the fry of the twelve- 
month before. 
However, no direct evidence can be adduced in favour of this 
supposition ; and it would be extremely difficult to obtain such 
evidence. 
The food of the herring consists of crustacea, varying in size 
from microscopic dimensions to those of a shrimp, and of small 
fish, particularly sand eels. While in the matie condition, they 
feed voraciously, and not unfrequently their stomachs are found 
immensely distended with crustacea and sand eels, in a more or 
less digested condition. — 
Herring thns abundantly fed are apt to have all their tissues 
so permeated with fat that they will not cure well, and their flesh 
is liable to break when handled. The Scotch fishermen style such 
‘as these ‘‘ gut-pock”’ herring,+ and consider them of very inferior 
quality. 
The Possible Effects of Legislation on the Breed of Herring. 
The herring is a notoriously variable fish, appearing in the 
most prodigious shoals, year after year, at a given point of the 
coast, and then suddenly diminishing in number, or even utterly 
* The intelligent Fishery Officers might be made highly useful by keeping 
natural history registers on a systematic plan, and results important both to 
science and practice might thus soon be obtained. 
t These seem to bo the ‘ Harengs a la bourse,’’ or ‘“ Harengs aboutifs,” 
of the French fishermen, 
