of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



49 



Another female, 145 mm. in length and weighing 26*9 grammes, was 

 in the same condition, containing quite ripe transparent eggs ; the 

 weight of the ovaries was 2*8 grammes. A third of the same length 

 was nearly ripe. Two males of 138 and 147 mm. were also nearly 

 ripe. On the other hand, some females caught on 22nd June, eighteen 

 miles from land, in thirty-five fathoms, measuring 118 and 132 mm., 

 were quite immature, the eggs being only about 0*07 of a millimetre in 

 diameter. Off Caithness in twenty-five fathoms, on the 3rd June, 

 females of fifteen and sixteen inches and under were spawning, but the 

 only small lemon dab discovered was a male 131 mm. (5| inches) in 

 length from which the spermatic fluid was flowing. 



It would be of interest to determine whether these very small mature 

 lemon dabs belong to a smaller " race " of the species. 



Witch (Pleuronectes cynoglossus). 



Only exceptionally in the inshore trawlings were specimens of this 

 flat-fish obtained, and then the haul had been extended into moderately 

 deep water. None were taken in Aberdeen Bay even in twenty or 

 twenty-two fathoms. At the " Dog Hole," from eight to thirteen 

 miles ofl', thirty were got in eight hauls, mostly in seventy fathoms. 

 In the Moray Firth they were occasionally caught off Burghead, and 

 less frequently in the Dornoch Firth, and particularly in the winter and 

 spring months, when they appear to extend into more shallow water 

 than in summer. In some of the deeper parts of the Moray Firth, 

 where the bottom is soft and muddy, witches abound, various hauls, 

 mostly for four hours, having yielded several hundreds. The influence 

 of the depth in relation to the numbers, providing the bottom is suit- 

 able, is shown by the following series of hauls in February ofl* Burghead 

 and towards Cromarty : — (1) two in seven to twelve fathoms, 94 and 

 191 ; (2) one in ten to eighteen fathoms, 249 ; (3) four in twenty to 

 thirty fathoms, 273, 423, 337, 322, the average being 338*5; (4) in 

 twenty-five to thirty fathoms, 893, 279, 490, and 1079, the average 

 being 685-2. 



Only four were got in nine hauls on the Fisher Bank, in thirty-four 

 fathoms, in June ; but on soft muddy bottoms on the north-eastern 

 grounds ofl" the Shetlands they occur in profusion, although not j|o 

 abundantly as a rule as in some parts of the Moray Firth. Thus, 

 seven hauls in from seventy-six to eighty-one fathoms, about from sixty 

 to ninety miles ofl" the northern coast of Aberdeenshire, yielded 1574, 

 thirty-six being too small to be marketable ; in four hauls in the same 

 region, but in sixty-four to seventy-one fathoms, 462 were taken, 

 thirteen being unmarketable. In ten hauls somewhat further north, 

 in May, in from fifty-eight to seventy-eight fathoms, 1253 were caught, 

 fifty being unmarketable, and they were mostly taken in the deeper 

 water. Four were taken in one haul in eighty-five fathoms, east of the 

 northern part of the Shetlands ; in eighty-one fathoms, further south, 

 164 were got in a haul, four being unmarketable. In this locality in 

 sixty-five and sixty-six fathoms nineteen hauls gave 1231, eighty-two 

 being unmarketable. The witch and megrim comprise almost all the 

 edible flat-fishes caught on the north-eastern grounds, where trawling, 

 for haddocks especially, is so largely pursued. 



The number of small witches taken in commercial trawling is com- 

 paratively slight, the thin, narrow, pliant fish easily escaping through 

 the meshes of the net. It is uncommon to find any so small as five and 

 a half inches in the trawl-net, the usual limit being about eight inches. 

 The proportion of small unmarketable specimens among 9368 was 796, 



D 



