of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



67 



Ljimgman,* who has studied the habits of the herring on the coast of 

 Sweden, states that * during the spawning season the herring are not 

 1 afraid of the net even in broad daylight, but rush blindly towards it, 

 * seemingly with the intention of squeezing themselves into its meshes, 

 ' and this in such a furious style that they frequently push down the net 

 1 entirely.' Ljungman further adds, that 1 during spawning the herrings 

 ' are packed in a dense mass, are in constant and violent motion, move 

 4 their tails rapidly, press and rub against each other or against the 

 ' bottom, press against the nets, &c, all with the obvious intention to 

 ' facilitate the emptying of the sexual organs ; ' and that during the 

 escape of the milt the sea-water assumes a whitish colour, and many 

 scales rise to the surface. He believed that the female fish generally go 

 nearer the bottom than the male fish. Hensen f mentions that the roe is 

 freely emitted by the female while hurrying to and fro over the spawning- 

 place. 



Mitchell, in his book on The Herring, mentions that once at Dunbar 

 ' the fishermen found that a very large body of herrings remained fixed to 

 ' the ground in the process of spawning.' 



Many other accounts of the spawning process have been given, but only 

 in one instance is there any evidence of the actual shedding of the milt 

 having been observed. This exception is referred to in an essay (MS.) 

 on The Herring, by Mr John Murray, Fishery Officer at Stonehaven, who 

 states that a Lochfyne fisherman noticed that herring which he found 

 spawning in a shallow pool were ' swimming edgeways together in con- 

 1 centric circles.' 



In order to ascertain what really occurred during the deposit of the 

 spawn, a number of observations were made during March and April last, 

 when, at the request of the Board, I joined H.M.S. 'Jackal,' to inspect 

 the herring fishing on the Ballantrae Bank. From these observations 

 there was no evidence that the herring, when undisturbed, were packed in 

 deuse masses, or that they darted wildly about, nor yet that they rushed 

 blindly towards the net, with the intention of squeezing themselves into 

 its meshes ; on the other hand, there was abundance of evidence to show 

 that the females at least remained almost motionless while the eggs 

 escaped. But when the herring were pursued by dogfish and other 

 enemies, they darted about in great excitement, and this excitement was 

 greatly increased when some of the spawning fish were meshed. Under 

 these circumstances great alarm seemed to prevail, and the herring, 

 evidently endeavouring to escape, rushed to and fro, often rubbing against 

 each other, and in the excitement unconsciously shedding their spawn on 

 the way. This reflex or unconscious shedding of the spawn especially 

 occurred when full fish were taken in the trammel nets, but seldom had 

 the eggs found adhering to the net been fertilised. In all probability, 

 herring, like most other creatures during the breeding season, are less 

 careful of their safety than under ordinary circumstances, and are hence 

 less easily disturbed ; but even at this time, as experiments showed, they 

 are quite alive to the necessity of escaping from their enemies. 



Apart, however, from the observations made during the spawning pro- 

 cess, there is other evidence in support of the fact that the female herring 

 at least are comparatively quiescent while the ova escape. If the eggs 

 were shed while the fish were darting wildly about, they would be found 

 scattered irregularly over the spawning ground occasionally in thick com- 

 pact layers. Although many millions of eggs were obtained from the 

 Ballantrae Bank, in no instance could they be said to form such lumps 

 as former writers often refer to. Whether they were on sea-firs, sea-weeds 



* United States Com. Eep. , part vi. 



t Jahresbericht der Com. in Kiel, iy.-vi. 



