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Part III. — Seventh Annual Report 



III. ON THE FOOD OF FISHES. By W. Ramsay Smith, B.Sc. 



I. Introductory. 



This paper and the tables accompanying it record one set of the results 

 of; the scheme of investigation planned by Dr T. Wemyss Fulton, 

 Secretary to the Scientific Report Committee, and carried out by the 

 naturalists . of the Board, especially by Mr Thomas Scott. ' Form C,' on 

 which this Report is founded, deals (1) with the sizes and maturity of 

 the various kinds of fish, and (2) with the contents of the stomachs of the 

 fish examined and measured ; and thus it will be seen that the numbers 

 of fish at the various stations and dates here recorded agree very closely 

 with those in ;the tables of maturity and sizes, any discrepancies being 

 sufficiently accounted for by the fact that when the sex could not be 

 determined, the fish were not included in the latter tables though they 

 were included in the return of the condition of stomachs. 



In projecting such a scheme of examination, one could not possibly 

 have foreseen what the character of the results would be ; for on retro- 

 spection one can glean nothing from former data, wherever recorded, 

 regarding the questions that are raised and the problems that have to be 

 solved from a systematic examination of many hundreds of fish at certain 

 definite stations at different times of the year and under many vary- 

 ing conditions. One is surprised, therefore, to find how extremely 

 interesting such an investigation has already been, and how very 

 apparently useful it is likely to prove if so fully prosecuted as to yield 

 sufficient material for the solution of the very complex and difficult 

 problems regarding the food of fishes ; and one is also struck by the great 

 success that has attended a scheme whose outlines of plan and methods 

 of carrying out had necessarily to be of so tentative a nature. The 

 results already obtained, suggest many lines of investigation and must 

 be extremely encouraging to the promoter of the scheme and those that 

 have so laboriously and patiently carried out the detailed investigations. 

 These details are very much more numerous than can possibly appear from 

 an examination of the tables or from the remarks here made upon them ; 

 since in many instances not less than half a dozen species of animals 

 have been identified in a single stomach, and so entered on the returns. 

 It is a matter for regret that the space available for such a report does 

 not permit of the list to be published in full ; but the facts noted in the 

 remarks will show how complete the list has been, and how valuable it 

 may become for future reference and investigation. 



It will be observed that I confine the remarks almost entirely to matters 

 of fact, no theories being started and very few deductions being made. 

 This is necessitated by the amount of materials at one's disposal, only 

 8 months' record being as yet available, so that one may say there are not 

 yet sufficient statistics for comparison. The most valuable statistics probably 

 are those of flat-fish, since very little has as yet been recorded regarding 

 the food of these fish; and the value of the information depends not merely 

 on the unmber of fish examined, but on the fact that the'fish were examined 

 at definite stations and at stated times. In this way some strange and 

 apparently unaccountable facts come to light. For example, a glance at 

 the statistics relating to long rough dabs in the Firth of Forth will show 

 what sort of problems have to be solved by investigation. During the 

 months from June to October sand-stars formed the chief food of these 

 fishes, shrimps being very rarely recorded in these months. In November 



