232 
Part IIL — Tenth Annual Report 
II.— OBSERVATIONS ON THE REPRODUCTION, MATURITY, 
AND SEXUAL RELATIONS OE THE EOOD FISHES. By Dr 
T. Wemyss Eulton, F.R.S.E., Secretary for Scientific Investigations 
(Plate VI.). 
In previous reports were published certain of the results of inquiries 
on the spawning, maturity, and sexual relations of the food fishes * carried 
out under the scheme of investigation which I devised in the spring of 
1888. This system was first put into execution in the summer of that 
year, and has been continued since ; and thus a mass of material exists, 
which during the past few months I have studied anew. Pressure of space 
and time will prevent anything but a bare statement of the facts ; and 
the same circumstance debars me at present from comparing the results 
as carefully as is desirable with those obtained by Mr W. E. Holt on the 
West Coast of Ireland, f I may add that all the statements made in this 
paper, unless expressly stated to the contrary, refer to the East Coast of 
Scotland, 
I. The Spawning of the Food Fishes. 
1. The Spawning Time. 
At various parts of the coast fishery officers have for two or three years 
kept records to show the numbers of male and female fish which they 
found to be ripe among a certain number examined, noting the place 
where the fish were captured, the date, and the condition of those not 
ripe — whether maturing or spent. By this system an exceedingly large 
number of fish have been examined, the records beginning early in 1889. 
1 give in Table I. the results which 1 have tabulated from these records : — 
TABLE I. — Showing the Numbers of Mature Fish (male an l female) in 
different Months, and the Number Examined* 
Fish. 
December. 
January. 
February. 
Examined. 
Ripe, 
« Spent. 
Examined. 
Ripe. 
Spent. 
Examined. 
Ripe. 
Spent. 
6 
9 
6 
? 
6 
9 
Cod, 
262 
1271 
4 
8 
1562 
115 
149 
28 
Haddock, 
747 
1995 
24 
51 
n 
1891 
212 
322 
16 
Whiting, . 
229 
Ling, 
265 
Saitbe, 
63 
132 
6 
"i 
"i 
114 
Y2 
i'3 
42 
Turbot, . 
Brill, 
6 
Halibut, . 
' 3 
13 
14 
Tusk, 
* Seventb, Eighth, and Ninth Annual Reports. 
t Vide the admirable and exhaustive report by this naturalist on the scientific 
investigations in connection with the recent survey of fishing grounds on the West 
Coast of Ireland, published in the Report of the Council of the Royal Dublin Society 
during the present year 
