OF THE CORNISH PILCHARD FISHERY. 



tow-nettings, but the variety occurring in the former was by 

 no means so great as that of the latter. 



It is interesting to compare the food conditions of the 

 above with those observed in two series of stomachs from fish 

 obtained in Mevagissey Bay on the 20th of October, 1905, 

 and Mounts Bay on the 23rd of the same month. The fishery 

 at both stations represented, at the time, the final stages of 

 the summer season. The few vessels still engaged were 

 shooting comparatively close inshore and obtaining small 

 catches of 500 down, the fish being undoubtedly the remnants 

 of the summer shoals together with a fair sprinkling of 

 " shirmers," i.e., spent fish of a thin cadaverous appearance, 

 generally above the normal size. 



The food observed in the first series (Mevagissey) was of 

 a character very similar to that already described in the case 

 of fish from Portwrinkle, but it was possible to detect a higher 

 proportion of Copepod remains attributable to the following 

 species : — Acartia cLausi, Calaims finniarchicus, C entropages 

 typicus, Pseiidocalanus elongatus, Temora longicornis, etc. 

 Oikopleura dio'ica, however, again preponderated, and by 

 reason of the presence of a large quantity of phytoplankton 

 the stomach contents generally wTre of a greenish colour. 



In the Mounts Bay series, however, the conditions were 

 entirely different. In the six stomachs examined there was 

 no indication of any phytoplankton. Oikopleura was not 

 observed, and the whole of the stomach contents presented a 

 reddish brown appearance, interrupted here and there by 

 layers of a darker colour. The former material was found 

 to consist almost entirely of Copepods, amongst which 

 Calanus fimnarchicus preponderated ; the streaks of a darker 

 tint were due to an almost pure sample of the Pteropod Mollusc 

 Limacina retroversa Flem., shoals of which had been fre- 

 quently met with during the summer of the same year.^^' 



It may be remarked at this point that according to the late 

 Mr. Matthias Dunn^' "shirmers" appear all along the coast 

 about a month or six weeks after the summer fishing has 



Vide "Plankton Tables," Inter. Fishery Bulletins. 

 1" Dunn, M., "The Migrations and Habits of the Pilchards," Lectures 

 on Fishes, etc., County Fisheries Exhibition, Truro, 1893, p. 171. 



