302 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



15 to 20 Sand Launce from 31^ to 5 inches long. A few specimens were seined at 

 Blue Point Cove, Great South Bay, and at Howell's Point, in the same bay, August 

 31, 1898. 



At Woods Hole, Mass., it comes in the spring, but is most numerous late in Sep- 

 tember and till trap fishing ends. In October, 1895, a trap near Tarpaulin Cove 

 caught 3,500 at one lift. These brought 10 cents each in New York. In spring and 

 summer the fish has no market value, but it sells in the fall. 



The name Hickory Shad is applied to this species from the Chesapeake Bay 

 region southward, and in some Georgia rivers this is abbreviated to Hicks. In the 

 Potomac and some other rivers tributary to the Chesapeake, the name Tailor Shad 

 is applied to this fish. The Hickory Shad occurs from Maine to Florida, entering 

 rivers except in New England. The species is much less valuable than the shad, for 

 which it is often sold by dealers. Nothing definite is known about its habits, but 



BRANCH HERRING. 



Marshall McDonald was of the opinion that it spawns in the rivers at a little earlier 

 period than the shad, which it always precedes in the ascent of the streams in spring. 



44. Branch Herring (Pomolohiis pscudoharcngus Wilson). 



Clupea vernalis Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., 267, 1883 ; Bean, Fish 



& Fish. Ind. U. S., I, 588 ; Fishes Penna., 58, pi. 25, fig. 45, 1893. 

 Alosa tyranmis DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 258, pi. 13, fig. 38, 1842. 



The Branch Herring, River Herring, or Alewife has a variety of additional names. 

 It is the Ellwife or Ellwhop of Connecticut River, the Spring Herring of New York, 

 the Big-eyed and Wall-eyed Herring of Albemarle, the Sawbelly of Maine, the Gray- 

 back of Massachusetts, the Gaspereau of Canada, Little Shad of certain localities, and 

 the Cayuga Lake Shad of New York. The recorded range of the Branch Herring is 

 from the Neuse River, N. C, to the Miramichi River, in New Brunswick, ascending 



