94 Appendices to Fourth Annual Report 



TABLE (XXII.) showing Percentage per Month of Herrings (total 

 number, 1100) according to their Sexual Maturity. 



Sexual Condition. 



Jan. 



Feb. 



March 



April. 



May. 



June. 



July. 



Aug. 



Sept. 



Oct. Nov. Dec. 





12-8 



371 



57-6 



0 



0 



0 



26-8 



42-8 



66-6 



Percentage not 

 ascertained, but 

 ripe, 1, and ^ 

 ripe received 

 from South- 

 west Coast. 





70-5 



51-2 



20-6 



130 



5-0 



7-0 



38-8 



23-7 



3-6 



i ripe 



14-4 



6-9 



8-8 



27-0 



32-1 



44-0 



24-0 



14-3 



1-8 



Partially or ) 

 wholly spent, j" 



2-3 



4-8 



13-0 



60-0 



62-9 



49-0 



10-4 



19-2 



28-0 



The fully-ripe fish are probably understated in the table, because most 

 of the actually spawning fish are unlikely (since herrings appear to spawn 

 at the bottom*) to be within reach of the nets. 



The ripe and three-quarter ripe January herrings came from Girvan, 

 Loch Broom, and all the East Coast districts ; in February, from Girvan, 

 Loch Broom, and all the East Coast districts except Berwick ; f in March 

 as in January ; in April, from Campbeltown and Stornoway ; in May, from 

 Stonehaven ; in June, from Inveraray, Stornoway, and Wick ; in July, 

 from Girvan, Inveraray, and the whole East Coast ; in August and 

 September, from the whole East Coast ; in October and November, from 

 the South- West Coast (including Loch Fyne) ; and in December, from 

 Stonehaven and Dundee. The dates are those in which the fish procured 

 for this investigation were caught, and are typical of the spawning seasons ; 

 but the exclusion of localities from some of the months does not mean that 

 no such herrings were to be found there, but only that none reached me, 

 and probably, therefore, there was little or no fishing at these places at 

 the time. 



The spawning, then, of the herring on the Scottish coasts alone, may be 

 said, as previously pointed out by Ewart, to proceed during every month 

 in the year ; for in April, May, and June fully-ripe fish are to be procured, 

 although it so happens that none reached my hands during that period. 

 Although there are two principal spawning periods, which may generally 

 be called the winter and summer periods,J yet spawning to a very con- 

 siderable extent is going on for ten months of the year — October and 

 November on the East Coast, and April and May, being the principal 'oft'' 

 seasons. It is very probable that were the means taken many more 

 spawning fish would be caught in these months also. 



The months of April, May, J une, and the first few days of July are not 

 only poor in the supply of nearly or fully ripe herrings, which to a certain 

 extent is probably due to the regular fishing not being prosecuted, but are 

 notable on account of the large percentage of herrings from such fishing as 

 there is, consisting of immature fish (of course I exclude, in making this 

 remark, the immature herrings caught by specially small-meshed nets). 

 The large percentage of spents found in the table under these months were 

 really few in number, and only hold a high position in the table because 



* See Ewart's 'Observations on the Spawning of the Herring.' — Report of the 

 Fishery Board for Scotland. 1883. 



t Day ('Fishes of Great Britain') mentions spawning herrings being found in 

 January at Wick and in the Moray Firth, but in almost the next sentence gives the 

 extreme dates for the EngHsh and Scottish coasts, from Shetland to the Korth Fore- 

 land, as ' from the latter end of May to December.' Yet one of the principal spawn- 

 ing seasons on the East Coast of Scotland is January and February. 



X I have preferred winter and summer to autumn and spring, because, though 

 part of both these latter seasons are included in the principal spawning periods, the 

 season of least spawning falls in them rather than in the others. 



