SHAD A GAME FISH. 215 



vvhicli could hardly be otherwise captured. Now, however, 

 710US avons change tout cela, and opportunities for the practice of 

 this delightful art are sought for so eagerly, that any person is 

 regarded in some degree as the sportsman's benefactor if he 

 introduces to his notice a new species which will afford sport 

 with the artificial fly. 



It is, as I have observed, indisputably true, that on his 

 entrance into fresh Avater from the salt, for the purpose of 

 spawning, the Shad will readily take a gaudy fly, the more 

 readily the higher he runs up into the cold and highly aerated 

 waters in the upper parts of our large rivers, where also they are 

 taken in the greatest perfection, as for instance in the Delaware 

 so far up as Milford, in Pike county, Pennsylvania. 



The New York Shad [Alosa Prastabilis) was, I believe, first 

 distinguished specifically by Dr. Dekay of New York, having 

 been previously confounded with the Allice Shad of Europe 

 {Alosa Communis of Cuvier, Clupea Alosa Auctorum), to which 

 it bears a very considerable resemblance, although I presume 

 that the distinction can be fully made out. 



The body of this fish is deep and compressed, the thickness 

 rather less than one-third of the length. The length of the 

 head is to that of the whole fish as one to six ; the depth to the 

 length as one to four. The scales are very large; the tail long, 

 slender, and deeply forked. 



The dorsal fin-rays are nineteen ; the pectoral, fifteen ; ven- 

 tral, nine ; anal, twenty- six ; and caudal twenty. The greatest 

 depth of the body is just before the ventral fin. The Shad has 

 no distinct lateral line ; its abdominal edge is strongly serrated, 

 especially behind the ventrals. 



