THE SHAD. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SHAD. 



The sliad {Alosa sapidissima) is the largest, best-known, and most 

 vahiable member of the herring family in the United States. The body 

 is deep and compressed, the depth varying with the sex and spawning 

 condition, but averaging about one- third the body length. The head, 

 contained about 4| times in the body length, is quite deep; the cheek 

 is deeper than long. The jaws are about equal, the lower jaw fitting 

 into a deep notch on the tii3 of the upper. Teeth are jiresent in the 

 young, but are not found on the jaws in the adult. The eye is contained 

 5| to 6 times in the length of head. The gillrakers are long, slender, 

 and numerous, there being from 93 to 120 on the first arch. The fins 

 are small and weak, the dorsal containing 15 rays and the anal 21. 

 The lower edge of the body is strongly seriated, the plate-like scales 

 numbering 21 before the ventral fin and 16 behind it. The scales in 

 the lateral liue number GO. The body is dark-bluish or greenish above, 

 silvery on the sides, and white beneath. There is a dark spot behind 

 the gill-opeuing and sometimes a row of smaller spots along the side. 

 The vertical fins often have black or dusky edges. The peritoneum 

 is white. Supposed structural and color ijeculiarities in shad from 

 different regions or basins have not been verified. 



From the other clupeoids with which the shad is frequently asso- 

 ciated iu the rivers, it may be readily distinguished. In all of them the 

 cheek is longer than deep. The hickory shad or hickory jack [Fomolohus 

 mediocris) has a projecting lower jaw and a very straight profile. The 

 river herrings or alewives are much smaller than the shad, have fewer 

 and shorter gillrakers, and a larger eye (3J in head). In the branch 

 herring (P. pseudoharemjns) the peritoneum is pale, while in the glut 

 herring (P. wstivalis) it is black. 



The female shad is larger than the male, the average difference in 

 weight being more than a pound. The mature males taken in the 

 fisheries of the Atlantic coast weigh from 1^ to G pounds, the average 

 being about 3 pounds; the females usually weigh from 3 to 6 pounds, 

 the average being 4^ pounds. The general average for both sexes is 

 between 3f and 4 pounds. In the early history of the fisheries, shad 

 weighing 11, 12, and even 14 pounds were reported, but 9-pound shad 

 are very rare on the Atlantic coast, and 10 pounds seems to be the 

 maximum. Some seasons an unusual number of large shad (7 to 9 

 l>()unds) appear in certain streams. On the Pacific coast shad average 

 a pound or more heavier than on the Atlantic, occasionally attaining a 

 weight of 14 pounds ; many have been reported weighing 9 to 12 pounds. 



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