70 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



or " glut " alewife of the Potomac, rather than of the gohleu shad of the 

 Mississippi Valley, which is essentially a fresh-water species. We are 

 not obliged to depend upon this observation of habits, however, since 

 a comparison of the fry with the young alewives previously mentioned 

 leaves little doubt as to their identity. It is probable that they were 

 hatched in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Colorado 

 mouth some time in February or March of this year. It is to be hoped 

 that specimens of the adult alewives, and any other herring-like fishes 

 that may be found in the Colorado and other tributaries of the Galf, 

 will be secured and forwarded to Prof. S. F. Baird, United States Com- 

 missioner of Fish and Fisheries, Washington, D. C, in order that the 

 progress of introduction may become known. If those fry observed by 

 Mr. Selkirk are young alewives, it is almost certain that they were in- 

 troduced into Texas with the shad. It is well known that the newly- 

 hatched alewife is small enough to come in through the gauze bottom 

 of a hatching-box, which will not allow the escape of shad eggs or 

 fry. The alewife, moreover, is hatched earlier than the shad, and is 

 always on hand in advance to unite destinies with its larger relative, 

 even to the extent of being carried thousands of miles and deposited 

 in waters never seen by its progenitors. In this way, it seems to me, 

 one of the great lakes, and some of the lakes of Xew York, were stocked 

 with alewives in the effort to introduce shad ; at all events, they first 

 appeared in those waters after the attempts with shad were made. 

 U. S. National Museum, 



Washington, May 6, 1881. 



