266 



Part III. — Twenty-fifth Annual Report 



March 16th, 1907. The stomachs of four herrings (3 3 and 1 $), part 

 of a sample also from Stornoway, contained each a fair quantity of food. 

 In one, which was tolerably well filled, the food consisted partly of 

 Nyctiphanes and partly of Hyperiidse (Parathemisto), but in the other 

 three it consisted of Nyctiphanes only. 



(5) Anstrutiier, Firth of Forth. 



June 6th, 1905. — The stomachs of fifteen herrings from a sample sent 

 from Anstruther were examined for food ; with one exception, they were 

 all male fishes. Only three of the stomachs contained food ; all the others 

 were empty. The food observed consisted entirely of Parathemisto 

 oblivia. One of the stomachs containing Parathemisto was that of a 

 female fish. 



June 10th, 1905. — Twenty-five stomachs from another sample of herrings 

 sent from Anstruther were examined. Eleven were found to be empty, 

 and of the others one contained the remains of Crustacea — probably 

 fragments of Parathemisto — but they could not be satisfactorily 

 determined. The food observed in five of the others appeared to consist 

 entirely of the species of Amphipod just referred to, while that contained 

 in the other eight stomachs included both Parathemisto and Euphausiidae. 

 These Schizopods, though they could not be identified with absolute 

 certainty, appeared to belong to Thysanoessa sp. Four of the 

 stomachs (two from female and two from male fishes) were distended 

 with the large amount of food they contained, and which consisted of 

 Amphipods and Schizopods in about equal proportions. 



(6) Peterhead, Wick, and Shetland. 



November, 1906. — The stomachs of a few herrings representing 

 samples sent from Peterhead, Wick, and Shetland, were examined in 

 November. Two, which were those of fishes belonging to a sample from 

 Peterhead, contained each a tolerable amount of food. In the one case it 

 consisted for the most part of the Decapod larva? and in the other of 

 Calanus helgolandicus. 



Three stomachs of herrings from a sample sent from Wick were also 

 found to be well supplied with food. In two of them the food appeared 

 to consist entirely of Metridia lucens, and in the other of young fishes 

 which were too much decomposed to be satisfactorily identified. 



The remaining three stomachs were those of herrings from a sample 

 sent from Shetland. Like the others, they each contained, a considerable 

 amount of food, but in this case it consisted entirely of Euphausiidae, 

 but it was not in a condition to permit of an exact determination. 

 From a careful examination of the fragments, however, I think it highly 

 probable that they belong to the genus Thysanoessa. 



I now append in tabular form the names of the various organisms 

 referred to in the preceding notes. 



[Tabli. 



