134 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



a considerable commotion, swimming rapidly at the 

 surface, and pressing together and thrashing the 

 water with their tails during the process of deposi- 

 tion and impregnation of the eggs, which sink and 

 lie free at the bottom. The fish are so exhausted 

 after breeding that many perish ; others get back 

 to the sea, so that by the end of the summer none 

 are to be seen. 



The eggs are small and very numerous ; the 

 young fry feed on minute crustaceans, and reach a 

 length of 3 or 4 inches before the winter, when they 

 disappear, doubtless hibernating at the bottom, and 

 perhaps hiding under stones ; during the next spring 

 and summer they attain a length of 6 or 7 inches 

 in fresh water, and about July go down to the sea, 

 whence they next reappear as adult fish, rarely 

 less than a foot long and probably three or four 

 years old. The young fry found in fresh water 

 have fewer gill-rakers than the adult fish, usually 

 from thirty to forty on the lower part of the 

 anterior branchial arch. 



The Allis Shad is in best condition for the table 

 from the time when it first enters fresh water until it is 

 ready to spawn ; the flesh is said to be excellent, 

 although the numerous bones may be trouble- 

 some. 



The Twaite Shad {Clupea finta) has the body 

 on the average a little more slender than the Allis 

 Shad, the greatest depth being contained three and a 

 half to four and one-fourth times in the length of the 

 fish ; also the shape is more regularly fusiform, the 

 highest point of the body being at the origin of the 

 dorsal fin. The gill-rakers are much shorter and fewer, 



