REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 75 



for three or four weeks, beginning October 15; at Block Island, Novem- 

 ber. Spawning takes place at a temperature between 47° and 57° F., in 

 the open coast waters not deeper than 30 fathoms. (H. F. Moore, Report 

 U. S. Fish Commission, XXII, 1896, 40.) Eggs are 1-20 inch in diameter, 

 adhesive, and are deposited on the bottom. . They hatch in a period 

 varying from nine to fourteen days, depending on the temperature of 

 the water. The young are then 7-24 inch (5 to 7 mm.) long. At 

 Woods Hole, according to Dr. Smith, "schools of large herring in a 

 spawning condition appear about October 15, and remain till very cold 

 weather sets in." 



Rate of Growth : At Woods Hole, in January, young herring one-fourth 

 inch long are taken in tow nets, and in May they are 1 to 1 J inches long; 

 by August they have attained a length of 2J to 3 inches. Fish three to 

 five inches long are found from September 1st to the end of the season. 

 About June 1st, for two weeks, there is large run of herring smaller 

 than those of the fall run in Narragansett Bay. Schools of young, 

 about two to four inches long, are common in April and May. Young 

 specimens two inches long taken June 6, 1893 (Prof. Jenks). Young 

 4f to 6 inches taken in Gravesend Bay, November 23, 1897. 



Masterman summarizes the life history of the young herring, as fol- 

 lows: "The young larva, hatched at about 5 to 7 mm. {\ inch) in length, 

 lives near the bottom till some 10 mm. (2-5 inch) is attained by a rapid 

 increase in length. The attenuated post-larval herring then migrates 

 upward through the mid-water to the surface, the mid-water stage 

 lasting from 10 mm. to 23-24 mm., and the surface stage from 24 mm. 

 to 27-28 mm. (1| inch) when a movement shoreward takes place, and 

 the littoral habit is acquired." (Masterman, 1896.) 



Food: Small pelagic invertebrates, chiefly copepods, and larvae of worms 

 and molluscs. 



References: 



1886 

 1890 

 1896 

 1896 

 1897 

 1897 

 1909 



Cunningham, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 33, 97. 



McIntosh and Prince, ibid. 35, 854. 



Cunningham, Marketable Marine Fishes. 



Masterman, Report Fishing Board of Scotland, 14, 294. 



Brice, Report U. S. Fish Com., XXIII, 225. 



McIntosh and Masterman, British Marine Food Fishes, 405. 



Ehrenbaum, Nordishes Plankton, 10, 361. 



40. Pomolobus mediocris (Mitchill). Hickory Shad. 

 Geog. Dist.: Florida to Bay of Fundy. 



