CLUPID^E. 181 



grce 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-water 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, Penn- 

 sylvania. 



The New York Shad, Alosa Prastabilis, was, I believe, first dis- 

 tinguished specifically by Dr. DeKay of New York, having been pre- 

 viously confounded with the Allice Shad of Europe, Alosa Communis, 

 of Cuvier, Clupea, Alosa, Auctorum, to which it bears a very con- 

 siderable 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 daeply forked. 



The dorsal fin-rays are nineteen, the pectoral fifteen, ventral 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. 



The top of the head and back are dusky blue, with brown and green 

 reflections in particular points of .view. There is a single dusky spot 

 behind the operculum. The irides, sides of the head and body, are of 

 a silvery white, with a tinge of copper-color. The dorsal and caudal 

 fins are dusky, the pectoral, ventral, and anal fins, white. 



The flesh of the Shad is perhaps the most delicate of any existing 

 fish ; and, though it lacks the lusciousness, as well as the glutinous 

 fin of the Turbot, it is preferred to that fish by many judicious epi- 

 cures, notwithstanding the drawback occasioned by its innumerable 

 and sharply-pointed bones. 



From personal experience and success, I can assure the fly-fisher 

 that he will find much sport in fishing for the Shad during his upward 

 run in the spring, with a powerful Trout-rod, a long line, and such flies 

 as he will procure in perfection at Conroy's, in Fulton-street, New York 



