THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 



307 



The shad reaches a length of 2 feet. It is asserted that 50 years ago shad 

 weighing from 8 to 13 pounds were not uncommon in the Susquehanna. It is said 

 that even larger individuals were taken. In California the shad reaches a larger 

 size than it does in the east, specimens weighing from 13 to 14 pounds being often 

 seen in the markets. The average weight of the females is 4 or 5 pounds. The 

 male is much smaller. 



The young shad remain in the rivers till the approach of cold weather, when 

 they descend to the sea, and they are usually seen no more till they return as 

 mature fish ready for reproduction. They are known to feed on small flies, crusta- 

 ceans and insect larv.ne. They have been fed with fresh-water copepods and kept 

 alive in this way till they obtained a length of more than i inch. In the Carp ponds 

 at Washington, Dr. Hessel succeeded in rearing shad on the Daplinia and Cyclops to 



a length of 3 or 4 inches, and one time, when they had access surreptitiously 

 to an abundant supply of young carp, well-fed individuals reached a length of 6 

 inches by the first of November. Shad have been kept at the central station of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission over the winter, but at the age of one year, doubtless for 

 lack of sufficient food, the largest was less than 4 inches long. At this age they 

 were seen to capture smaller shad of the season of 1891, which were an inch or more 

 in length. The Commissioner of Fisheries detected young shad also in the act of 

 eating young California salmon ; and on one occasion found an undigested minnow, 

 2 or 3 inches long, in the stomach of a large shad, and they have been caught with 

 minnows for bait. The principal growth of the shad takes place at sea, and when 

 the species enters the fresh waters for the purpose of spawning it ceases to feed, 

 but will sometimes take the artificial fly and live minnow.s. The migratory habit 

 of the shad has already been referred to. The spawning habits have been thus 

 described by Marshall McDonald : 



The favorite spawning grounds are on sandy flats bordering streams and on sand 



