310 



Appendices to Fifth Annual Report 



TABLE XXXV., showing Percentage of Mature Herrings arranged 

 according to the Combinations in which are found the relative 

 positions of the Pectoral and Pelvic Fins to the Body Length (less 

 Head and Caudal Fin). 







Ratio of Position of Pectoral Fin. 











Ratio of Position of 

 Pelvic Fin. 



Winter. 



Summer. 





•032 

 to 

 •049 



•050 

 to 

 •067 



•068 

 to 



•085 



•086 

 to 

 •103 



•032 

 to 

 •049 



•050 

 to 



•067 



•068 

 to 



•085 



•086 

 to 



•103 





7o 



°i 



7o 



7. 



7o 



7o 



7o 



7o 



•429 to -450 



27 



3-4 



2-4 



•4 



•8 



3-8 



1-3 





•451 to '472 



6'0 



22-5 



167 



8'0 



12-2 



20'6 



9-3 



•5 



•473 to -494 



3-4 



7'5 



19-4 



3-4 



6'7 



19'6 



12-7 



2-0 



•495 to -516 



•4 



1-4 



17 



•7 



i-6 



3-5 



4-9 



•5 



There is little to be said about, these tables. They show how difficult 

 it is to discover any such evident distinction between the various fish 

 composing the winter or summer samples, as could be called racial. It is 

 difficult even to find a clear distinction between the summer and winter 

 fish when we come to class them according to these combinations. 



An examination of the localities from which the fish came is distinctly 

 adverse to their being any permanent local varieties. This is seen in one 

 respect from an examination of the position of the dorsal fin — the most 

 strongly marked variable characteristic — on the herrings from each locality. 

 The whole extent of variation is found represented on herrings from each 

 locality — except, of course, those extremes which were found in only a 

 very few examples — but even these were not confined to one single locality. 

 Table XXXVI. shows in what position the dorsal fin was found on each 

 coast, from which it will be perceived that every position recorded was re- 

 presented on herrings from both the east and west coasts, and in nearly equal 

 proportions of these. In addition to this, however, a more detailed 

 examination showed that each grade, except that indicating the most 

 extreme anterior position, came from every district — from Berwick to Wick 

 on the east, and from Ballintrae to Stornoway on the west coast, as well 

 as from Orkney and Lerwick. Those few herrings which had the fin in 

 the class indicating its most forward position, came from such widely 

 separated localities as Ballantrae on the south-west, and Helmsdale on the 

 north-east coast. 



Some interest attaches to Table XXXI., in so far as it reduces the 

 value of the position of these fins as a racial distinction. Although the 

 anal is to a certain extent found in its more backward position, together 

 with a similar condition in the dorsal fin, the table does not strongly cor- 

 roborate what we might have expected, viz., that on the herrings with the 

 anal fin in its more extreme position, it would always be accompanied by 

 a corresponding extreme in the position of the dorsal fin. The anal in its 

 most anterior position is found in combination — nearly equally distributed 

 — with the dorsal fin in nearly every grade of the latter's variation. So 

 to a less extent with the median and most backward positions of the 

 anal. 



