BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 61 



36.-HABITS OF THE SIIAO AND IIERRIIVO, AS THEY APPEAR IN 

 THE POTOMAC RIVER TO ONE ^'UO HAS WATCHED THEM FOR 

 FIFTY YEARS.* 



By PEAKSOIV CflAPHIAX, Sr. 



The Glut shad make their apijearance in the river, say at Mathias 

 Point, about the 10th of March, and would increase in numbers until 

 the 1st of April if not disturbed. During or about the last of the month 

 of April they commence depositing their spawn, always, as I believe, 

 on hard gravelly beds, rocks, logs, and even anchors when at the bot- 

 tom for a few hours. I have never hauled mud up with spawn in it. 

 After spawning each individual returns to salt water. 



In the month of May another species of shad, commonly called the 

 May shad, makes its appearance. It is very short, thick, and stout, 

 remarkable for the smallness of its body just before it branches oft' into 

 a tail, fat and well tlavored. This species of shad is nearly extinct, 

 owing to the gill-nets. In the month of June, in addition to the above, 

 we have a very large and stout shad, the flesh remarkably white when 

 split open and soaked in clean water. It looks somewhat as if sat- 

 urated with milk, but is so soft, mushy, and tasteless that one would 

 hardly want to eat it. 



What shad feed on in the Potomac I cannot say. When I reflect on 

 the immense numbers that visited our waters fifty years ago, I almost 

 venture the assertion that they do not eat at all, for there could not 

 have been food enough for half the number. Yet when their 

 stomachs are examined we find a substance not unlike black mud. In 

 the month of September the young fry are in great numbers playing 

 along the shor«;s on their way down. Immense numbers are caught up 

 in gauze seines for bait. They are then about the length of a man's 

 finger, and from that down to the smallest minnow. I am fully per- 

 suaded that they come back to where they were spawned, but when I 

 cannot say, though I believe immediately after the third year. I have 

 often seen young shad not more than 9 or 10 inches long caught in a 

 seine. What they were doing among their elders I know not. 



The Branch or Blear-eyed herring is so called from its peculiar eye, 

 which looks as if it had been seriously injured a month or so ago and 

 was just healing. Some might doubt whether these can see at all. 

 These make their appearance about the same time the first shad do. 

 They go into the creeks and thence up in the branches (hence the 

 name), and sometimes as far up as they can flutter over the gravels in 

 order to deposit the spawn. 



The Hickory jack (Hickory shad or Taylor) go there also, and about 

 the same time and for the same purpose. May not the immense size of 



* Bead before the Maryland Academy of Sciences December 22, 1875. 



