SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 125 



In April, 1892, numerous young glut herring, only 1.5 inches long, were 

 found in Pasquotank River; they were apparently 3 months old, and their pres- 

 ence at that season is somewhat difficult to account for. The adults had only 

 just begun to run, and no spawning fish had as yet been observed in the river. 



In the Albemarle region this fish is always distinguished by the fishermen, 

 and is known under various names, such as "herring", "glut herring", "school 

 herring", " blueback", and " May herring". Features by which the two species 

 of alewives may be readily separated are the color of the lining (peritoneum) of 

 the abdominal cavity (pale in branch herring, black in glut herring), size of eye 

 (larger in branch herring), and height of vertical fins (more elevated in branch 

 herring). 



Genus ALOSA Cuvier. Shads. 



Anadromous clupeids of comparatively large size; body deep and much 

 compressed; cheeks deeper than long, jaws toothless in adults, upper jaw 

 indented at tip to receive the tip of lower jaw. Three American species, two of 

 which inhabit rivers tributary to Gulf of Mexico and one the streams of the 

 Atlantic coast. (Alosa, from the Saxon allis, the European shad.) 



110. ALOSA SAPIDISSIMA (Wilson). 

 "Shad": "White Shad". 



Clupea sapidissima Wilson, Rees' Cyclopedia, ix, about 1811; probably Philadelphia. Smith, 1893a, 191, 195 



199; Albemarle Sound and tributaries. 

 Alosa proestabilis. Yarrow, 1874, 452; Beaufort Harbor. 

 Alosa sapidissima. Yarrow, 1877, 215; Beaufort Harbor and Neuse River. Jordan & Evermann, 1896, 429, 



pi. Ixxii, fig 191. 



Diagnosis. — Depth of body about .33 total length, the female being deeper than the 

 male; head .23 to .29 total length; mouth large, jaws equal, teeth on jaws in young examples 

 and sometimes in those over a foot long; eye .20 to .25 length of head; gill-rakers long and 

 numerous, their number depending on size of fish, about 100 to 110 on the two arms of the first 

 arch in full-sized examples; scales deciduous, in lateral series 60 to 65, in transverse series 16; 

 fins small, vertical fins higher in male; dorsal rays 13 (4- 3 or 4 simple rays); anal rays 19 (-1- 

 several simple rays). Color: dark green on back, silvery on sides, white below; a dusky 

 blotch on side of body near head, and behind this several or numerous dark spots in one or 

 two rows, these spots most distinct when scales are removed; fins plain, (sapidissima, most 

 palatable.) 



The range of the shad is from Florida to Gulf of St. Lawrence. Throughout 

 this long stretch of seaboard, it ascends all suitable streams. The species has 

 also been introduced on the Pacific coast, and is now distributed from California 

 to Alaska, being abundant in the San Francisco Bay region and Columbia River. 

 The shad is the most valuable of all the anadromous fishes of the Atlantic coast 

 and supports commercial fishing in every state. In North Carolina the shad is 

 numerous in nearly all the sounds and rivers, Pamlico ajid Albemarle sounds and 

 the rivers which discharge into them and the bodies of water connecting these 

 sounds having especially large runs. 



The name "shad" is distinctive and is generally used in North Carolina as in 

 the country at large; but owing to the fact that in this state the menhaden is 



