BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 69 



and feed with them ; I get them at two cents per pound ; I have five 

 barrels now just received. If feeding- well will make them grow they 

 shall have it. It is funny to see the little fellows eating small crumbs ; 

 sometimes a dozen will be around one small crumb and stick to it until 

 it is all gone. I delight in sitting at my pond watching the fish, and 

 they seem to know me and my wife from strangers, judging from their 

 actions. I will make another drawing of my pond and send you if you 

 did not get the one sent. Nothing will please me better than to meet 

 you and talk fish. I have exterminated the bull-frog and snake tribe, 

 and all is quiet on the lake at night now, and not a ripple is made by 

 his snakeship seeking the tempting frog or fish. 



ABEL A. WEIGHT. 



MOVEITIEIVrS OF YOIJIVG AL,E\» IVES (?) (POMOtiOBUS SP.) IW COL.O- 



RADO RIVER, TEXAS. 



By TARL,ETO]¥ H. BEAN. 



The United States National Museum has recently received from Mr. 

 J. H. Selkirk, of Matagorda, Texas, two small ale wives, measuring about 

 one inch in length, which are wonderfully like the fry of the common 

 alewives of the Potomac and other northern rivers. They have been 

 compared directly with fry of nearly the same size taken opposite Wash- 

 ington, and, while we cannot say positively that they are identical with 

 the " branch " ale wife or herring, yet we believe that they are the same 

 species. Mr. Selkirk sent the fish to Professor Baird, thinking that they 

 might prove to be shad, which, indeed, they resemble. I quote from his 

 letter to the Commissioner the details of his observations upon them : 



" Matagorda, Tex., April 20, 1881. 

 " To the Fish Commissioner, 



" Washington, D. C. : 



" Dear Sir : I inclose two small fish. Please inform me what species 

 they are. My reason for asking is, that some few years ago there were 

 some shad placed in the Colorado Eiver at Austin, and, as I have never 

 seen any shad, and these were taken out of the same river near its 

 mouth, I thought it possible they were shad. They were all going up 

 stream, and in innumerable quantities. I am not exaggerating when I 

 say, I walked along the bank for a mile, and as far as I went they were 

 in sight as thick as anywhere, and still coming, the school being about 

 two feet wide. 



" This river emj^ties into Matagorda Bay a short distance from where 

 I saw them." 



Prom the fact that these young herring were discovered near the mouth 

 of the river ascending the stream in dense masses, one would infer that 

 they were the young of some anadromous species, such as the "branch" 



