226 EEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



maxillary extending back to a perpendicular from the hinder border 

 of the pupil. Lower jaw projecting beyond the upper. Eye in the 

 head, four and one-third. Teeth usually present at the tips of both jaws. 

 Gill-rakers comparatively short, stout, and few in number; about 

 twenty-three below the angle of the gill-arch. Opercles striated. Dorsal 

 rays, sixteen ; anal, eighteen. Middle of belly strongly serrated from 

 the throat to the vent. Tail forked. Scales, about fifty-five. Color, 

 bright blue above, sides silvery, with golden reflections. Length, 

 twelve to eighteen inches. 



Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico in the larger rivers. Lake Michigan 

 (i4, No. 2, 55); Carroll County Q2J, '88, 48); New Harmony (4, '88, 

 166); Ohio Kiver at Madison (Hay) and Evansville (Jordan) 



This fish appears to have reached the Great Lakes through the canals. 

 Mr. H. M. Smith (^, '92) states that it has become abundant in Lake 

 Erie. It is one of our most beautiful fishes, but it is worthless as an 

 article of food. Dr. Jordan (7, 73) says that in the Gulf of Mexico this 

 fish becomes excessively fat. In the waters of our rivers, on the other 

 hand, it is lean and poor, and its flesh is insipid. As to its food, Forbes 

 says that it appears to be strictly predaceous. Those which he examined 

 had, with one exception, eaten fishes. One had fed wholly on terres- 

 trial insects. 



Genus DOROSOMA Raf. 

 f 



Body deep and much compressed. Head short and the snout blunt. 

 Mouth small, inferior, the maxillary with a single supplementary bone. 

 Gill-rakers numerous, of moderate length. Dorsal usually situated 

 behind the ventrals. Anal rays many. 



DOROSOMA CEPEDIANUM (LeS.). 



Hickory Shad; Mud Shad; Gizzard Shad. 



Jordan and Gilbert, 1882, 8, 271 ; Jordan, 1884, 12, 610, pi. 217. 



Body deep and much compressed, elliptical in outline. Head short; 

 snout shorter than the eye, which enters tbe head four aiid one-half times. 

 Caudal peduncle narrow; tail forked. Depth in length, two to three 

 times. Head in length, about four. Snout projecting beyond the small, 

 inferior, horizontal mouth. The maxillary extending back to the pupil. 

 Eye in head, four and one-half. Gill-rakers slender, but rather short. 

 Belly serrated from the throat to the vent. Dorsal rays, twelve, the 

 last ray prolonged into a filament. Anal rays, thirty-one. Scales in a 

 longitudinal row, about fifty-six. Color, steel-blue above, silvery below, 

 with a tint of blue. A black spot on the shoulder of the young. 



Abundant along the Atlantic Coast from Cape Cod to Mexico, enter- 

 ing all rivers. In the Mississippi Valley it is a permanent resident in all 

 the larger streams and some of the Great Lakes. It has been reported 



