68 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



April 14 vvliile the Delaware and Hudson rivers 



see them nearly as soon, or whenever the 

 water reaches the temperature of sixty or 

 seventy degrees Fahrenheit. They go as 

 high up the river and its tributaries as 

 possible, and spawn in the shallow water 

 near the sources. In the Hudson shad- 

 fishing opens about the ist of April, 



None of these fishes seem to feed in the 

 fresh waters at all, spending their whole 

 time and energy in frantic haste to reach 

 their spawning-grounds and finish their 

 errands. Then, poor and weak, they 

 turn back, but only a few adult fish 

 ever seem to regain the sea, though the 

 catch of "back shad" in the Hudson is 

 considerable. The race is maintained by 

 the escape of the half-grown ones, and by 

 the return in the autumn of the young 

 which are hatched during the summer 

 and at once begin their perilous journey 

 to the ocean. 



Lesser marine life is also waking up 

 and attending to the first great duty of 

 nature — propagation. Now the eggs of 

 the common edible mussel are hatched, 

 and the young are attaching themselves 

 to rocks, algae, etc., in the tideways at 

 the mouths of streams and harbors ; the 

 naked Eolis is gluing its eggs to sea- 

 weeds, and on the sandy beaches the big 

 pear-shaped " winkle-shells " are begin- 

 ning to spawn. Within the sands various 

 tube-inhabiting worms, or annelids, espe- 

 cially the common Nereis are reproduc- 



