REVIEW OF LOCAL FISHES 



45 



by anglers for sport and occasionally wanders to our vicinity as does the 

 smaller related Big-eyed Herring, a rather large-mouthed elongate cigar- 

 shaped fish, separable from our true herrings by its smaller scales and 

 conspicuous lateral line. It may be readily told from a third such 

 wanderer, the cigar-shaped Ladyfish, because the Ladyfish has a short 

 lower jaw beyond which the snout protrudes to some distance. All our 

 other herring-like fishes lack a lateral line. 



Two of the remaining species have the last ray of the back fin pro- 

 duced in a filament like that of the tarpon; the Gizzard Shad, a mud- 

 eating fresh-water species with protruding snout, uncommonly entering 

 our region in the rivers to the west, and the marine Thread Herring with 

 lower jaw about as long as upper, which sometimes reaches our coast in 

 numbers from the south in midsummer. The Round Herring, uncom- 

 mon in salt water, differs from all other species in having the belly 

 rounded instead of being compressed to a more or less sharp saw edge. 

 The Menhaden is a deep-bodied, fine-scaled fish differing from its rela- 

 tives in having the edges of the scales pectinate, that is, with comb-like 

 projections or teeth. Menhaden occur off our shores in immense com- 

 pact schools throughout the summer. As they swim, their wide mouths 

 are kept constantly open, gulping salt water which is strained out 

 through the exceedingly fine long gill rakers, the fish thus securing a rich 

 food supply. It gets very fat and the compact schools which swim at the 

 surface, often with their back fins out of water, are much preyed upon 



/V^? ', 



GLUT HERRING 



by other fishes as well as being caught in bulk for oil. Of the remaining 

 five herrings, one only, the true Herring, with the belly fins under the 

 middle of the back fin, spawns in the sea. The others run up fresh-water 

 streams and rivers in spring and summer. The Herring also has the 



