in all shad streams, and in many small streams from which the shad 

 have long since disappeared. The alewife does not need to go so 

 far up the stream to lind a suitable spawning bed, and even spawns 

 in the ponds of brackish water. The bony fish probably does not 

 come into fresh water at all for the pnrpose of spawning. It is some- 

 times, however, found about the estuaries of our streams, but will not 

 live long in fresh water. They are sometimes cut off from returning 

 to sea by the closing of the tideway at the Charleston ponds in Khode 

 Island, and always perish during the winter, while the alewife lives. 

 The bony fish are found all along our coast, from tlie Capes of Yii'- 

 ginia to Maine, and form the staple of a lucrative business in oil and 

 iish guano. The geographical range of the shad is from the coast of 

 Florida to the British provinces, and we believe lias not been found 

 in any other locality, unless artificially planted. The shad of Europe 

 is a much smaller and inferior Iish. The shad resembles the salmon 

 in its migratory habits, but is found much farther south. The salmon 

 probably did not resort to any river south of the Hudson, while the 

 shad entered every considerable stream along our coast north of 

 the St. Marys. They make their appearance on the Carolina coast 

 in February, and in the New England streams in April. Some have 

 supposed that they formed one vast shoal in the ocean and moved up 

 the coast in the spring, giving oft' a delegation to each stream as they 

 passed by its mouth. But the best authorities now consider that each 

 river has its own family of shad, and that however far it may wander 

 from the mouth, while it remains in the sea, it is sure to return. The 

 shad of the Connecticut and the Hudson rivers are so different in shape 

 and appearance, that marketmen accustomed to handle them readily 

 distinguish the one from the otlier. It is probably rare that a shad 

 strays into any other than its native stream. Shad are supposed to feed 

 on soft-shelled Crustacea, the young of molluscs, small fish and the lower 

 orders of marine life. They have been found with vegetable matter in 

 their stomachs, so that they cannot be wholly carni vorous. As caught in 

 our rivers, nothing is usually found in their stomachs. They stay in 

 the sea, feeding voraciously until the breeding instinct leads them to 

 seek their spawning beds. They then push up the stream with great 

 rapidity uTitil they find their birth-place, traveling hundreds of miles 

 in a few days. Fresh run shad are sometimes taken at the head of 

 tide water, fifty or more miles from the sea, with fishes in their 

 stomachs so little digested that their species could be determined. 

 The same slioal does not probably remain long in the stream. As 

 soon as the spawn are dropped they return to the sea, so much 



