of the, Fishery Board for Scotland. 10^ 



usually found in the upper waters, excepting during the spawning period. 

 An apparent exception to this rule has, however, recently been brought 

 under our notice. An important long-line fishery is prosecuted off the 

 Blackwater (Arran), by Campbeltown fishermen in the spring, the chief 

 forms taken being cod, ling, and skate. During the latter part of March 

 and early in April the skate brought into Campbeltown were found to 

 have their stomachs filled with herring. The herring in the district at 

 this time are mostly spent fish, and as skate are essentially bottom-feeders, 

 it is evident that the herring found in their stomachs must have been 

 captured at the bottom. The fact that the food forms are pelagic in their 

 habit accounts for the great variety of species found in the stomachs, 

 particularly during the spring and summer months. Mobius has suggested 

 that the herring does not discriminate between one form of food and 

 another when feeding on the more minute species, but that the swarms of 

 microscopic animals which are diffused through the sea are drawn into the 

 mouth along with the water of respiration, and are retained there, while the 

 water passes out through the opercula. The herring would thus appear 

 to obtain its food in a similar manner to the whalebone whale (Balxna), 

 so far as the copepods and other minute forms are concerned. It thus 

 happens that copepods, larval stages of decapods, pelagic fish ova, and other 

 forms are often found together in the same stomach, and the relative 

 abundance of each depends on their frequency in the sea itself. 



Mobius has also described several truly littoral forms of amphipods and 

 annelids on which the herring feeds in the shallower parts of the Baltic. 

 These are common littoral forms with us, but it does not appear that they 

 frequently form a part of the herring's food around the Scotch Coast, 

 probably for the reason that the herring do not frequent the localities in 

 which these forms abound. 



The period during which most food is taken by the herring varies on 

 different parts of the coast, and occurs usually between the spawning 

 seasons, while the sexual products are being matured. Speaking generally, 

 there are two great spawning seasons both on the East and West Coasts, 

 one in the spring and the other in the autumn. The dates and duration 

 of each vary, however, in different districts. It also appears that the 

 herring on the East Coast take most food during the winter and spring, 

 while on the West Coast the summer is the great feeding season. This 

 fact alone is sufficient to account for the marked contrast between the 

 food taken on the two coasts, and to make it necessary to study the two 

 questions separately. In the present report, however, our attention has 

 been mainly directed to an examination of the food which is taken by the 

 herring all around our coasts, and the question of supply and demand in 

 any particular district must be left for further investigation. In studying 

 this question one cannot fail to remark the great proportion of stomachs 

 which, at certain seasons, do not contain food. As yet, we have no 

 accurate data on this point, but it appears probable that the period during 

 which little or no food is taken is not confined to the spawning season. 

 During a part of the months of June and July we failed to obtain any 

 herring containing food in Loch Fyne, although those examined were not 

 yet ripe, and food was plentiful in the district. Earlier in the season 

 almost every stomach examined was crammed with food, but, towards the 

 end of J uly, the percentage of stomachs containing food and also the 

 quantity in each diminished considerably. In November, those examined 

 from the Sound of Bute were all empty, while all those from the Sound of 

 Kilbrannan contained a fair quantity of food. At Lybster in the begin- 

 ning of February, 6000 herring were examined, only three of which had 

 any food in their stomachs. The percentage of stomachs containing food 



