204 



A'ppendices to Fourth Annual Report 



the hooks, when the line is afterwards pulled up from the end next the 

 flag and buoys, renders such a cause probable. 



The tirst group in zoological order which is a source of annoyance to the 

 line fishermen is that of the star-fishes, and insignificant as such creatures 

 individually may seem, their numbers make them so formidable that on 

 certain grounds off Fife Ness (with the Carr and Balcomie nearly in a 

 line) the fishermen do not care to shoot their lines, since their bait, 

 especially at night, would be seized for the most part by star-fishes. 

 Moreover, if lines have been long down, as for instance for a night or two 

 during a storm, the fishes captured are so injured (the fishermen say 

 ' sucked ') by the cross-fishes that some resemble those removed from the 

 stomach of a predatory fish. The remarkable provision whereby the 

 creatures project the mucous membrane of the stomach compensates for 

 more elaborate modes of attack. By the same method they also remove 

 the oysters from their valves, and thus do great damage to oyster-beds. 

 Scarcely a line -basket is brought on shore by the fishermen without a load 

 of star-fishes, which have fastened on the bait in the water. The chief 

 depredator is the common star-fish (Asterias rubens)^ though the habit is 

 common to the group, so that several rare forms, such as the ling-thorns, are 

 thus obtained for museums. 



The common edible crab^ the shore crab, and a few others, often dis- 

 figure fishes on the lines first shot, especially after a storm in the bay. 

 The disturbance of the bottom, according to the fishermen, causes the 

 crabs to 'creep.' There is this in support of the latter notion, that not a 

 few young edible crabs, shore crabs, and others, are always tossed on the 

 west sands after a storm. The injured fishes have the abdomen rudely 

 lacerated and the viscera torn out, and occasionally the smaller forms are 

 severed right across. 



Amongst the mollusks one of the chief marauders is the great whelk 

 (Buccinum undatum), which is everywhere abundant on the hard ground 

 so frequently chosen by the liners. These shell-fishes attack the hooked 

 fishes so successfully with their rasping tongues that, if undisturbed, only 

 the skin and skeleton remain, though a less injury disfigures the fish. 

 The squids (cuttle-fishes) again are partial to the hooked round fishes, such 

 as the haddock, whiting, and bib, which they generally injure anteriorly 

 by removing the muscles from the dorsum behind the head and in the 

 neighbourhood of the anterior dorsal fin, while their suckers make un- 

 sightly patches on the surface of the fish. In many cases the injury 

 caused by the cuttle-fishes is comparatively slight, but in others the brain 

 is exposed, especially in young fishes. It is interesting to find that the 

 cuttle-fishes generally seize on the ' nape ' of the neck. 



The attacks of the glutinous hag (Myxine), the so-called ' eel ' of the 

 fishermen, are not much complained of at St Andrews, though hundreds 

 are annually captured by the liners, for they greedily seize on the mussels. 

 It only rarely happens that they enter the mouth or other aperture of a 

 hooked cod and remove all the soft tissues between the skin and the 

 skeleton. 



On Two Kinds of Fishing in which many Immature Fishes 

 ARE Captured. 



Two modes of fishing occur to me on the present occasion, as illus- 

 trative of the destruction of immature fishes, viz., sprat fishing and 

 shrimp-trawling. 



