DOROSOMID^E THE GIZZARD-SHAD 45 



it will rise to the fly, 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 commer- 

 cial importance. 



Family DOROSOMIDiE 



(the gizzard-shad) 



Body short and deep and much compressed, covered with thin 

 cycloid scales; head naked; belly sharp-edged, armed with bony serra- 

 tures ; no lateral line ; skeleton bony ; vertebrae 49 ; anterior vertebrse 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 ex- 

 ceedingly numerous; pseudobranchice large; adipose eyelid present; 

 mouth rather inferior, oblique; 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) 



Le Sueur, 181S, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.. I, 361 (Megalops). 

 G., VII, 409 (Chatoessus); J. &G., 271; M. V., 74; J. &E., 1,416; N., 44 (notatum) ; 

 J., 55; F., 73; F. F., I. 2, 79 (var. heterurum) ; II. 7, 437, II. 8, 528, ff; 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^ in depth in adults; 

 caudal peduncle short and deep, its depth in its length LI to 1.3. Color 

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



* Specimens 15 to 18 inches, weighing about 3 pounds, occasionally taken from 

 the Mississippi at Alton. (H. L. Ashlock.) 



