DOROSOMID^ — THE GIZZARD-SHAD 45 



on the hook. Dr. Estes says that it will rise to thejfly, coming 

 up for it, testing it, and getting away again almost before the 

 angler can strike. It seems not to be valued as food, and is too 

 rare in our waters to have any commercial importance. 



Family DOROSOMIDJE 



THE gizzard-shad 



Body short and deep and much compressed, covered with thin cycloid 

 scales; head naked; belly sharp-edged, armed with bony serratures; no 

 lateral line; skelton bony; vertebrae 49; anterior vertebrae not modified; 

 ventral fins abdominal; dorsal about midway of body, its last ray prolonged 

 and filiform; no adipose fin; pectorals and ventrals with an accessory scale; 

 caudal forked; mesocoracoid present; gill-membranes free from isthmus; 

 branchiostegals about 6; gill-rakers slender and exceedingly numerous; 

 pseudobranchite large; adipose eyelid present; mouth rather inferior. obUque; 

 premaxillary non-protractile; maxillary with supplemental bone, narrow and 

 short, forming but a small portion of the lateral margin of the upper jaw; 

 no teeth; stomach short, muscular, like the gizzard of a fowl. 



Coasts and rivers of warm regions; two genera in American 

 waters. Thin-bodied, bony fishes, of little value as food. 



Genus DOROSOMA Rafinesque 



gizzard-shad 



Characters of genus included above. Lower Mississippi Valley and 

 streams of Gulf coast as far south as Yucatan. A single species found in 

 the waters of Illinois. 



DOROSOMA CEPEDIANUM (Le Sueur) 

 gizzard-shad; hickory-shad 



(Pl.. p. 46; Map VIII) 



Le Sueur, 1818, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., I, 361 (Megalops). 



G., VII, 409 (Chatoessus); J. & G., 271; M. V., 74; J. & E., I, 416; N., 44 (notatum); 

 J., 55; P., 73; F. F., I. 2, 79 (var. heterurum) ; II. 7, 437, II. 8, 528, fC; L. 20. 



Length usually not over 12 inches*; body deep and considerably com- 

 pressed, depth 2.6 to 2.9 in length; greatest width 3 3^ in depth in adults; 

 caudal peduncle short and deep, its depth in its length LI to L3 Color 

 silvery, bluish above, with reddish and brassy reflections; a large dark spot 

 behind opercle in the young; fins more or less dusky. Head deep posteriorly 



* Specimens 1.5 to 18 inches, weighing about 3 pounds, occasionallj' taken from the Mississippi 

 at Alton. (H. L. Ashloek.) 



