HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



55 



NOTES ON THE GIZZA11D-SHA.D IN NEW 



JERSEY. 



By Dk. Charles C. Abbott. 



FAB. away, iu quiet, maple-shaded ponds, wliere 

 the deep-voiced bull-frog sounds his doleful 

 ditty, and the sprightlier swamp-frogs on the reedy 

 shores, and bell-tongued Hylas on the drooping 

 branches of the overhanging trees, wake the dull 

 echoes with a livelier song— here, "out of the 

 world," as it were, iu green and sluggish waters 

 that tempt no seeker for romantic scenes, there 

 roams, in hstless mood, a great lazy, leaden-coloured 

 fish that denies in its habits any kinship to the great 

 Herring family, to which it belongs. 



which they are found, or why, wheu the "in- 

 letting" cause— say, a freshet — is repeated, they 

 do not take advantage of the fact, and turn it to an 

 "out-letting" incident. Speculation, however, 

 availeth nothing in this case. We can make no 

 scientific use of our imagination here ; and so, 

 suffice it to say that in some ponds these queer 

 herriug are truly, permanently land-locked, aud 

 flourish admirably. 



Of their habits as a land-locked fish we propose 

 to say something, and also of that anatomical pecu- 

 liarity that they possess, the " gizzard," or muscular 

 stomach. 



Perhaps an unquestionably laxy fish, that docs 

 little more than move about from lily-stem to lily- 

 stem for the myriads of little shells that wauder up 



-A: 



;>>-■. 



jFig. 36. Gizzard-shad {Dnrosoma cepe.dianum) 



'' In many such ponds, year in and out, these 

 inland herring {Dorosoma cepedianum. Gill) live and 

 move, and have their being, subsisting on the 

 myriads of small shells that they crush to atoms in 

 their dense, muscular stomach, and occasionally, 

 when moving about in search of food, giving notice 

 of their presence by the light ripple made by the 

 long ray of their dorsal fin floating, eel-like, on the 

 surface of the water. 



We have purposely headed our paper with the 

 announcement that we treated of this fish only as 

 found in New Jersey; for if we go beyond the 

 limits of the inland ponds, aud study the ichthyo- 

 logy of the rivers, especially the Delaware, we will 

 find that of the migratory fishes the herrings 

 [Clupeidce) are the most important feature of the 

 firmy fauna, the magnificent shad {Alosa ■pi-festabllis, 

 De Kay) heading the list iu point of value, aud our 

 gizzard-shad comiug iu "last," both in matter of 

 numbers and value. So, too, this " shad " is found 

 on the coast, not iu great numbers, but in scattered 

 companies, associated with the innumerable shoals 

 of his cousins. 



It is not always easy to determine how these 

 " herring " have gotten into some of the uonds iu 



and down these slimy, snake-like growths, can be 

 said not to have any habits. But they do accom- 

 plish something more than this, which one who had 

 made but their accidental acquaintance might sup- 

 pose was all, for early iu April they undoubtedly 

 "fall in love." 



It would seem as though they caught the true 

 meaning of the warblers' merry notes, and were 

 inspired by the crimson flashes of light that glance 

 upon the water as the madcap oriole in his nuptial 

 dress rushes hither aud thither among the trees. The 

 dull, leaden tints of the Gizzard-shad become now a 

 glistening blue, and sparkling silver decks their 

 ashy sides. No water seems too cold,faud none too 

 shallow for them. They dart like pickerel up the 

 tiny brooks, aud skip and dance about the deeper 

 ponds as though too joyful to contain themselves. 

 From the muddy depths they rise to the surface, 

 and throwing themselves upou their sides, leap 

 above the water, as though challenging the birds to 

 match their brilliant colours. Day after day this 

 excess of action is kept up, and ends, as all such 

 mauffiuvrings ever do, iu a profound reaction, when 

 their humdrum existence returns, varied a little 

 from the later su'.nmer months by a few weeks* 



