228 Appendices to Sixth Annual Report 
This table shows that 70 stomachs (42°7 per cent.) contained food, 
of which Schizopods, particularly Vyctephanes, formed by far the greater 
bulk; and the stomachs were those of fish taken net only during the 
winter months, but also in the middle of summer. 
Amphipods were not of so frequent occurrence; those present all 
belonged to the Hyperiidz, and so far as could be made out, to one 
species, Parathemisto oblivia, Kroyer. Of Hyperia galba, Mont. (H. 
medusarum, Miill.) which has been so frequently recorded as being found 
in the stomachs of herring I did not observe a single specimen. 
Copepods only occurred in four samples of stomachs, which were all 
sent from the West Coast, and, so far as could be made out from the 
decomposed state of their contents, were almost all specimens of Calanus 
jinmarchicus. 
Young fish (sprats or herring) were observed in a number ef stomachs, 
principally from Stornoway. 
The results here brought out agree generally with hoe of previous 
statistics. It is shown by this table, as by those given in former papers, 
that Schizopods and pelagic Amphipods form the chief food of the her- 
ring on the Kast Coast. No Copepods were observed in the above cases in 
any of the stomachs sent from Hast Coast districts ; possibly the season of 
the year when the stomachs were collected, viz., January and February, 
may partly account for this total absence. On the other hand, Copepods 
were observed among the contents of the stomachs of only four of the 
samples from the West Coast, while Schizopods were very plentiful. The 
absence of Copepods from so many of the stomachs from the West Coast 
cannot be ascribed to the season of the year, for it will be seen from the 
table that the herring were caught during May, June, July, August, 
October, November and December ; and, besides, the stomachs of one of 
the four samples in which Copepods were observed, and in which they 
were abundant, were those of herring caught off King’s Cove, Arran, 
about the middle of November. Thus the results brought out here do 
not quite correspond with the general statement that, ‘ during summer 
‘and autumn the Copepods supply the all-important food (of the herring) 
‘on the West Coast.’! Copepods certainly formed a large part of the con- 
tents of the herrings’ stomachs examined at Tarbert, and the results 
brought out there would seem to apply to Loch Fyne generally. In the 
statistics given in the Fourth Annual Report,? it it is shown that in the 
stomachs of herrings caught in the Loch Fyne district Copepods were 
observed much more frequently than Schizopods during the summer 
months, while in those examined in September, specimens of both these 
groups occurred in nearly an equal number of stomachs. It appears so 
far to be satisfactorily determined that, as regards the Loch Fyne district, 
Copepods do form the greater part of the food of the herring during the 
summer, and probably also during the later spring and early autumn 
months ; the examination of the stomachs of herring from other parts of 
the West Coast yield, however, somewhat different results. In the above 
table, the list of the contents of the stomachs sent from the Broadford 
district, which were collected during July, August, September and 
October, show that the herring there had been feeding mostly upon 
Schizopods; and the stomachs sent from the Stornoway district, and col- 
lected during May, June and July, give a similar result ; so that, accord- 
ing to this evidence, Copepods hold a subordinate place as the food of the 
herring i in certain districts of the West Coast even during summer, In the 
previously published statistics above referred to, it will be observed that 
1 Fourth Ann. Rep. Fish. Board for Scot., Appendix F, p. 128 (1886). 
2. Loe. ct. 
ss 
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