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



bars. The fish appear to associate in pairs, usually between sundown and 1 1 P. M. 

 AVhen in the act of spawning they swim close together near the surface, their dorsal 

 fins projecting above the water and their movements producing a sound which the 

 fishermen call " washing." The eggs are expressed by the female while in rapid 

 motion ; the male following close and ejecting his milt at the same time. Such of 

 the eggs as come in contact with the milt are impregnated, but the greater portion 

 of them are carried away by the current or destroyed by spawn-eating fishes. After 

 impregnation the egg sinks to the bottom and under favorable conditions develops 

 in from three to eight days. According to Seth Green, the embryo shad swim as 

 soon as they break the shell and make their way to the middle of the stream where 

 they are comparatively safe from predaceous fishes. A mature female shad of 4 or 

 5 pounds contains about 25,000 eggs on the average, but as many as 60,000 have 

 been obtained from a 6-pound fish, and 100,000 were obtained from a single female 

 in the Potomac. There is great mortality among the shad after spawning. Dead 

 fish of both sexes are frequently seen floating in the water in the late months of 

 summer. 



Mitchill states that the shad visits New York annual!}- about the end of March 

 or beginning of April ; that it ascends toward the sources of the Hudson ; that it 

 usually weighs 4 or 5 pounds, but sometimes as much as 12 pounds. DeKay says a 

 large variety, supposed to be old fish, and weighing from 10 to 12 pounds, were 

 frequently taken in the Hudson, under the name of Yellow Backs. The shad, in his 

 time, ascended the river 150 miles to spawn, and descended in the latter part of May. 

 The introduction of gill nets, he writes, has caused a scarcity of the fish and will 

 drive them from the river before many vears. 



Nets set off shore in Gravesend Bay in the fall frequently enclose large quantities 

 of young shad, sometimes a ton and a half at one time, during their migration 

 seaward, but they are at once liberated. The fish are usually about 6 to 8 inches 

 long. October 17, 1895, sixty or seventy were caught in John B. DeNyse's pound, 

 among them a male 11 inches long and 2.v^ inches deep, and a female 12 inches 

 long and 3 inches deep. October 31, 1895, a male 13^2 inches long and 2ji inches 

 deep, and a female 13I2 inches long and 3'^ inches deep were obtained in the 

 same pound. Apparently the shad do not all remain at sea after their first migra- 

 tion till they are sexually mature. In the Potomac River young shad 8 to 9 inches 

 long occasionally enter in the spring with the adults in large numbers. Mr. 

 DeNyse informs me that in the first spring run of small shad in Gravesend Bay 

 fully go'^'o are males. 



