268 
Part III. — Ninth Annual Report 
Care was taken, as far as possible, to select herrings which were ripe 
and had lost no eggs. It is evident the range of fecundity is very great. 
It is usually stated {e.g., by Bay) that the number of ova produced by 
the herring varies from about ten to about thirty thousand. It is evident 
this number is too small. The largest number in the series examined by 
me was . 4-7, 466, and the smallest 21,503, the average for the sixteen being 
31,762. I should point out that all the specimens in the above series 
are ' winter herrings,' i.e., herrings which spawn in winter. Mr John 
Murray, the fishery officer at Newhaven, states that his investigations 
show that the ' summer herring ' is more fecund. 
Sprat (Clupea sprattus). 
Several specimens were examined in May, but not with very satisfac- 
tory results, owing to the bad preservation and the minute size of largo 
numbers of the ova. One caught on May 14 in the Firth of Forth was 
4 J inches long and weighed 136 grains. The ovaries were pale greyish, 
and weighed 6*5 grains. Two grains contained 432 large ova (about 
1'12 by 0*76 mm. in diameter), and about 1200 smaller, varying in size 
from 0'67 mm. to 0*06 mm. On the above data the ovaries of this fish 
contained 1404 large ova and about 4000 smaller. 
SYNGNATHIDiE. 
PiPE-FisH (Syngnathus acus). 
A specimen 11 inches in length, and weighing 114 grains, was caught 
in the Solway Firth on the 1st May, and contained mature ova. The 
ovaries were slender, and conspicuously coloured reddish-orange. The 
abdomen of the fish was not at all tumid. The great mass of the ovaries 
was composed of large translucent ova (about 1*9 mm.), and in the inter- 
spaces were a number of deep orange ova, much smaller in size (from 0*9 
to 0*3 mm.). The weight of the ovaries was 9^ grains, and they con- 
tained 79 large ova and 635 smaller (all were counted). It can scarcely 
be doubted that the ova are shed, as in most fishes, in successive crops. 
Mr W. Anderson Smith informs me that in 1883 he counted the young 
of this species, and found they averaged about 100, some going as high as 
150. He adds— 
* One would have supposed that we should have had certainty of ferti- 
' lisation in such a case as the male taking charge of each individual egg, 
* but in some cases we found as many as eighteen or twenty unfertilised ; 
* while again, in several instances, there was seemingly a recent and subse- 
* quent deposit of ova, perfectly fresh, alongside well-advanced young ! 
* Has the male more than one female to attend to 1 ' 
Bloch describes the ovaries, and states they contain from 60 to 66 eggs 
of the size of millet grains. 
* Oj). cit., Part II., p. 103. 
