358 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



ascending to the surface of the water, for it seldom, if ever, rises there 

 unless possibly for food. It differs from both the alewife and shad 

 in selecting shoal water to deposit, though never running in the 

 creeks or small streams. They select shoals of clean gravel, often in 

 the current, and there deposit their eggs. Like the alewife, the 

 ova and milt are deposited at once, and all fertilized together as they 

 sink to the bottom. They never deposit in mud. Sometimes quite 

 large schools are found about the spawning-grounds. When spent 

 and thus weakened they frequently rise to the surface of the water 

 for air in their downward course in the river to the sea. They differ 

 in their movements at the surface from the alewife at this time, and 

 are said to "flip" by the fishermen, the name having been suggested 

 doubtless by the noise or sound produced. They will ascend to the 

 surface for air and suddenly turn, and in the downward course the 

 impetus of the tail at the surface produces a single sharp slapping 

 sound called the "flip." Hence the fishermen call them flippers. Like 

 shad and alewives, nothing has been found in the stomachs of the 

 many examples examined, except, possibly microscopic animal life 

 not seen by the naked eye. Later, as they develop near the adult con- 

 dition, though with imperfect branchial apparatus, they feed like the 

 alewife and may then also be taken on a fly. Called rail herrin, 

 black belly or flipper locally by the fishermen. 



Alosa sapidissima (Wilson). 

 Shad. 



A curious hermaphrodite of this species, in which milt and roe were 

 about equally developed, was taken in the Delaware during late March 

 of 1908 and brought to Camden. The organs are of the usual type of 

 the milt and roe, only the anterior portion of each is characteristic of 

 the milt alone, the posterior being the roe. This example was secured 

 by Mr. J. B. Fine. 



A number were reported to have been taken during spring runs in 

 the tidewater of Raccoon Creek, at Bridgeport, Gloucester county. 

 They are thought to be much less abundant than formerly, the fisher- 

 men thinking the polluted river water has acted as a greater check to 

 their abundance in the river than any other cause. 



Mr. Emlen Martin says that in the catches, which numbered about 



