102 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 46. — Alewife (Pomolobus pseudoharengus) , Chesapeake Bay region specimen. 



Todd. 



From Goode. Drawing by H. L. 



herring from alewives in the dark. The most 

 useful distinctions between the alewife and the 

 blueback are that in the former the eye is broader 

 than the distance from its forward edge to the tip 

 of its snout and the back grayish green, while in 

 the latter the eye is only about as wide as the 

 distance from front of eye to tip of snout, and the 

 back is dark blue (p. 107). Also the lining of the 

 abdominal cavity is pale grayish or pinkish white 

 in the alewife, but is usually dusky or blackish in 

 the blueback. But this distinction may not hold 

 in all cases. 



Alewives are distinguishable from young shad 

 by their smaller mouths with shorter upper jaws; 

 also by the fact that the lower jaw of the alewife 

 projects slightly beyond the upper when the 

 mouth is closed, and by the outline of the edge of 

 the lower jaw, the forward part of which is deeply 

 concave in the alewife but nearly straight in the 

 shad. The lack of teeth on the roof of the mouth 

 distinguishes the alewife, with its brethren the 

 hickory shad (p. 100) and blueback (p. 106) from 

 the sea herring, anatomically. 



Color. — The alewife, like' the herring, is grayish 

 green above, darkest on the back, paler and 

 silvery on sides and belly. Usually there is a 

 dusky spot on either side just behind the margin 

 of the gill cover (lacking in the herring) and the 

 upper side may be faintly striped with dark longi- 

 tudinal lines in large fish. The sides are iridescent 

 in life, with shades of green and violet. The colors 

 change, to some extent, in shade from darker to 

 paler, or vice versa, to match the bottom below, 

 as the fish run up stream in shallow water. 



Size. — The alewife grows to a length of about 15 

 inches, but adults average only about 10 to 11 

 inches long and about 8 to 9 ounces in weight; 

 16,400,000 fish taken in New England in 1898 

 weighed about 8,800,000 pounds. 



Habits. — The alewife, like the shad and the 

 salmon makes its growth in the sea, but enters 

 fresh water streams to spawn. This "anadro- 

 mous" habit, as it is called, forced itself on the 

 attention of the early settlers on our coasts. In 

 the words of an eyewitness, "experience hath 

 taught them at New Plymouth that in April there 

 is a fish much like a herring that comes up into 

 the small brooks to spawn, and when the water 

 is not knee deep they will presse up through your 

 hands, yea, thow you beat at them with cudgels, 

 and in such abundance as is incredible." 67 And 

 they are no less persevering in their struggles 

 upstream today. Numbers of them are to be 

 seen in many streams, any spring, alternately 

 swimming ahead ; resting in the eddy behind some 

 irregularity of the bottom; then moving ahead 

 again, between one's feet if one happens to be 

 standing in midstream. And they are much more 

 successful than the shad in surmounting fishways 

 of suitable design. During the early runs some- 

 times one sex predominates, sometimes the other, 

 but the late runs consist chiefly of males, as a 

 rule, and these are said to outnumber the females 

 greatly on the spawning grounds. We have no 

 firsthand observations to contribute on this score. 



Alewives are decidedly general in their choice 



■ Capt. Charles Whitbome, In "The True Travels of Oapt. John Smith," 

 1S16, vol. 2, p. 260. 



