XX 



FouHh Annual Report of the 



Food of the 

 Haddock. 



Food of the 

 Cod. 



Fish as Food, 



Structure of 

 the Flesh of 

 Fish. 



Nydiphancs does not play as important a part as on the East Coast. 

 In Loch Fyne the herring feed almost entirely on copepods during 

 the summer months, and it is not until the autumn that other 

 Crustacea are taken to any great extent. 



The scientilic committee, in addition to continuing their obser- 

 vations as to the food of the herring, has directed their attention to 

 the food of the haddock and cod. 



The food of the haddock as far as determined (see paper. 

 Appendix, p. 128), consists chiefly of echinoderms, crustaoea, and 

 annelids. 



The echinoderms take the first place, the brittle-star and the 

 pea-urchin being most frequent. The Crustacea come next in 

 importance, and are represented by the hermit crabs, squat lobsters, 

 spider crabs, and several species of the shrimp tribe. All these 

 are found in abundance along the East Coast. The mollusca found 

 varied considerably, but were in most cases young specimens. The 

 annelids were represented chiefly by the sea-mouse {ccphrodite) and 

 ottier free forms. 



The haddock does not appear to feed to any great extent on 

 other fishes, and in this respect differs in a marked degree from the 

 cod ; like the cod, however, when herring spawn is abundant, they 

 congregate on the banks and feed almost entirely on spawn. 



It appears that the food of the cod (Appendix p. 134) differs 

 considerably from that taken by its ally the haddock. The 

 echinoderms which play such an important part in the haddocks' 

 food do not appear to enter largely into that of the cod, which seems 

 to depend chiefly on the Crustacea, flat fishes, and members of its 

 own family — whiting, haddock, &c. The sea-mouse also con- 

 stitutes a very important part of the food during the spring and 

 summer, in districts where this form is plentiful. In the winter 

 the cod is attracted to our shores by the large shoals of herring 

 which arrive to spawn on the inshore banks, and at this time herring 

 and herring ova form the staple food. From the evidence brought 

 forward it does not appear that the cod feeds largely on herring at 

 other times. 



Turning from the food of fishes to the consideration of fishes as 

 food, the Board regret having to confirm the belief that fish are not 

 appreciated amongst the working classes as much as they ought to 

 be. The prejudice against fish has arisen it seems because a fish 

 diet is not supposed to be capable of supporting sustained manual 

 labour. The muscles of fish undoubtedly differ in structure and 

 cliemical composition from the muscles of the higher vertebrates. 

 With a view of pointing out these differences, and indicating how a 

 fish diet may be prepared to meet the wants of those engaged in 

 outdoor as well as indoor work, the Board hopes to have several 

 inquiries instituted. As a first instalment a paper will be found 



of the Victoria 

 the distribution 



in the Appendix (p. 166) by Professor Stirling 

 University, Manchester. Dr Stirling describes 

 arrangement and histological structure of the red and pale muscles 

 in some of the common fishes. These two kinds of muscles are 

 known to exist in some mammals, insects, and other animals, but 

 their extensive distribution in fishes is an important point in 

 relation to the origin ot uauscuiar tissue. Besides other differences, 



