of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
13 
examination of many thousand food-fishes. Such fishes live chiefly 
upon Crustacea, annelids, echinoderms, and molluscs, and upon one 
another. There are great differences, however, as to the propor- 
tions of the organisms selected as food by different fishes. The 
whiting, for instance, is a very dainty feeder, and lives chiefly upon 
fish, such as young herrings, sprats, sand-eels, and its own species. 
The chief food of plaice consists of worms and molluscs; while the 
lemon sole which lives also largely upon worms prefers Crustacea 
to molluscs. The witch sole lives almost entirely upon worms. 
Haddocks are not so particular, and devour Crustacea, echinoderms, 
molluscs, annelids, herring spawn, and young fish. The proportions 
of the dietary vary to some extent at different places and at different 
seasons. 
These observations upon the food of edible fishes will ultimately 
demonstrate what organisms are valuable as fish-food and what are 
not; the proportions in which the various invertebrates compose 
the dietary of fishes; and the possibility of success in introducing 
a valuable food- fish, such as the English sole, in a locality where 
it is absent or scarce. They will also show in what way the 
organisms forming the food of fishes may be protected and improved. 
Investigations are being made by the 'Garland' as to the question 
of the destruction of the food of fishes by the beam-trawl. 
The Spawning and. Spawning Places of the Food-Fishes. — In a 
report on this subject Br T. Wemyss Fulton describes the results 
of the observations made during the year, many thousands of fishes 
having been examined on board the ' Garland/ and all along the 
coast, and the duration of their spawning period in most cases 
determined. The duration of the spawning season varies much in 
different fish ; and in some cases fully grown adults appear not to 
spawn every year. 
These investigations have proved that the old idea that the 
majority of the food-fishes, and especially the valuable flat-fishes, 
come into bays and estuaries to spawn is not correct. The only 
fishes which appear to spawn within the territorial waters are the 
almost valueless dabs, the flounder, and to some extent the gurnard. 
These fish spawn almost anywhere, both offshore and inshore. 
It is different with the more valuable fishes. The majority of the 
food-fishes congregate at the spawning time in immense shoals on 
the East Coast at grounds lying from about eight to above twenty 
miles from shore, in what may be termed the extra-territorial 
spawning zone. This is the case with plaice, cod, haddock, whiting, 
&c, which do not spawn at all in the territorial waters on the 
East Coast. The young fishes are not, as a rule, found at the place 
of spawning, the floating pelagic eggs being carried by the surface 
currents chiefly shorewards. The ' Garland ' has obtained large 
numbers of these eggs, and of the larval fishes, in the tow-nets. Dr 
Fulton gives reasons for the belief that the selection of a particular 
offshore ground for spawning depends upon the set of the 
surface currents at the spawning season ; these carry the floating- 
eggs during their development to the zones where food for the 
young fishes is most abundant and shelter most readily secured. 
The value of the investigations into the spawning grounds of the 
food-fishes, the distribution of immature fish, &c, would be very 
