128 



Appendices to Fourth Anmial Report 



On the West Coast the schizopods supply the chief food of the herring 

 during the winter months ; Hyperia has not occurred in any of the 

 material we have examined. During February and March at Ballantrae 

 the chief or sole food consists of herring ova and fry, it being then the 

 spawning period in that district. During the summer and autumn the 

 copepods supply the all important food on the West Coast, and. so far as 

 bulk is concerned, take the place of the Schizopods and Hyperia on the 

 East Coast. There is here also a large admixture of other pelagic forms. 

 In the autumn the schizopods gradually take the place of copepods as food. 



On the West Coast nearly all the stomachs are distended with food 

 from April to July, with certain exceptions, while in the autumn, winter, 

 and spring the percentage containing food appears to be much smaller. 

 On this account the greatest amount of food is taken at different seasons on 

 the two coasts, and it thus happens that Hyperia and Schizopods may be 

 regarded as constituting the most important food forms on the East, and 

 the copepods on the West Coasts. 



Galanus finmarchicus is by far the most abundant species of copepods 

 found as herring food on both coasts, and it is probable that Temora 

 longicornis comes next in importance. In the Stornoway district, how- 

 ever, Pseudocalanus and Centropages appear to be more abundant. 



The amount of copepods found in the herrings' stomachs from the East 

 Coast is undoubtedly considerably less than that found on the West, but 

 we are at present unable to say whether this proportion really represents 

 the relative abundance of this group on the two coasts or not. 



II. 



PRELIMINAEY ACCOUNT OF THE FOOD OF THE 

 HADDOCK. By George Brook, F.L.S. 



The present account of the food of the haddock is limited to material 

 which has been supplied by the Fishery officers of the Board. The 

 material so supplied is very incomplete from many points of view. 

 Altogether the contents of 90 stomachs have been examined, but more 

 than half of these have been supplied from one district. The following 

 are the numbers of haddocks' stomachs examined from the respective 

 districts : — Anstruther 4, Berwick 58, Burghead 3, Cromarty 6, Helms- 

 dale 1, Lybster 5, Montrose 7, Stonehaven 4, and Wick 2. The two 

 stomachs sent from Wick were samples of between 70 and 80 which 

 were examined, ' all of which contained more or less food.' It will be 

 seen that from this list that information is entirely absent from some of 

 the important haddock fisheries, while that supplied from all of the others, 

 excepting Berwick, is so small that no general conclusions can be based 

 upon it. 



Again information has not been supplied at regular intervals through- 

 out the year. This, no doubt, is to some extent unavoidable, as 

 material can only be preserved during the period that the haddock 

 fishery is prosecuted by the fishermen in each district. Still, taking this 

 into account, the material supplied is not so complete as could have been 

 wished. During the months of January, February, and March, the 

 contents of 77 stomachs were secured, while during June, July, October, 

 and November, the contents of only 13 were preserved. Thus from 



