14 



Part III. — Twenty-seventh Annual Report 



i.e., the condition where the reproductive organ is so large that it can be 

 detected on the outside of the fish, owing to its filling up the abdomen and 

 offering resistance to compression with the fingers. In some cases, e.g., 

 Upper Loch Fyne, July, the full herrings have been males chiefly, and they 

 might simply be regarded as complying with a fairly well established fact 

 that the males are ripe before the females. But there are full females 

 occurring then also, and, considering the small number of herrings 

 examined, the fact of their appearance at all in the samples indicates that 

 they must be present in each month in fairly large numbers. 



Arrangement of Analysis. 



The form in which the analysis will be arranged is as follows. The 

 herrings are grouped under three districts : — (1) the Clyde, (2) the West 

 Coast, (3) the East Coast. A list of the samples from each district is 

 given for each month of the year. The date of each is stated, but lots 

 belonging to different years are grouped together. In the majority of 

 samples the herrings are mixed. Yery often summer spawners are found 

 with winter spawners, immature herrings with herrings that are nearly 

 ripe, spent herrings with others that are preparing to spawn. Each sample 

 then is divided up into the different classes represented, the number of 

 individuals belonging to each being mentioned. In order to avoid the 

 repetition of the full names, winter spawners, summer spawners, &c, the 

 following contractions are used : — " S." and " W." stand for summer and 

 winter respectively, while " Spg." and " Aut." represent spring and autumn ; 

 1 1 Spr." signifies spawner, while " Spt." stands for spent. These two con- 

 tractions may be combined with any of the letters denoting the season of the 

 year, thus: — "W. Spr" means winter spawner, while " S. Spt." denotes 

 summer spent. The term spawner (" Spr.") is applied to a herring as 

 soon as the reproductive organs begin to ripen, i.e., about six months before 

 it spawns, and is continued until the herring becomes a " full" ("F.") herring. 

 Immature herrings are represented by "Imm." Immature herrings which 

 show that they have started to ripen, i.e., in order to spawn for the first 

 time, are denoted by " Imm. dev. " (immature developing). 



The range of length of the herrings is given in centimetres (" cm. "). 

 The extreme length is given, viz., from the point of the lower jaw to the 

 end of the longest caudal fin-rays. The range in size of the diameter of 

 the eggs in the ovaries is then added in millimetres (" mm. ") The 

 breadths of the ovary (" o ") and testis (" t ") are given in millimetres. All 

 the ovaries and testes of the herrings have not, however, been measured, so 

 that the data are not to be regarded as exclusive. 



An important character in the herring is the amount of abdominal fat 

 present. This varies very much. Even in the one class of herrings it is 

 seldom that all the herrings exhibit the same amount of abdominal fat. 

 Yery often two quantities are stated, which give an idea of the limits or 

 average condition among each lot. 



Where the condition of the stomach was examined the presence or 

 absence of food is noted. The quality of the food of a large number of the 

 herrings here dealt with is treated by Dr. Scott. 



List of Contractions. 



Aut. — Autumn, 

 dev. — Developing. 

 F. — Full. 



Fat — Abdominal Fat. 



Imm. — Immature. 



Imm. dev. — Immature developing. 



o— Ovary. 



S. — Summer. 

 Spg.— Spring. 

 Spr. — Spawner. 

 Spt. — Spent, 

 t — testis. 

 W.— Winter, 



