582 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



large individual supply indeed, compared with the present period (1815), when it is difficult for an 

 householder to obtain two hundred Alewives, seldom so many. 



"In 1762, at a vendue the surplus appears to have been sold in twenty-five barrel lots, which 

 sold at 3*. Id. and 4. the barrel. In 1763, Plymouth and Wareham took one hundred and fifty 

 barrels at the Agawam brook; 1 two hundred barrels was the usual vote, down to a modern date, 

 perhaps 1776. Menhaden were also taken in quantity at Wareham, and barreled for exportation, 

 in former years." 



The G. cestivalis is the "Glut" Herring of the Albemarle and the Chesapeake, and the "English" 

 Herring of the Ogeechee Eiver. In the Saint John's River, Florida, it is known simply as the 

 "Herring." On the coast of Massachusetts it is called the "Blue-back," a name which is common 

 to the late runs of the same species of the Rappahannock. Around the Gulf of Maine this species 

 is also known by the names "Kyack" or "Kyauk," "Saw-belly," and " Cat- thrasher." Although 

 the coast fishermen of Massachusetts and Maine claim to distinguish the two species, the "Blue- 

 backs" and the "Alewives," their judgment is by no means infallible, for I have frequently had 

 them sort out into two piles the fishes which they distinguish under these names, and found that 

 their discrimination was not at all reliable. The features to which they mainly trusted in the deter- 

 mination of C. cestivalis are the bluer color of the back and the greater serration upon the ventral- 

 ridge. The other species, when the scales on its back are rubbed off, is as blue as this, and the 

 serration of the belly is dependent entirely upon the extent to which the back has become stiffened 

 in the death struggle and the consequent degree of arching of the ventral ridge. The young of 

 one or both species are sold in the Boston markets under the name " Sprats," and in New York 

 they make up a large proportion of the so-called " Whitebait." In the report of the Massachusetts 

 Commissioner of Fisheries for 1869, Col. Theodore Lyman called attention to the probable occur- 

 rence of two species in Massachusetts, but his diagnostic characters seem hardly well chosen. The 

 form which he calls the "Gray-back" is undoubtedly G. vernalis, and the "Black-bellies," which lie 

 is inclined to believe distinct, would appear to be another run of the same species. The river Her- 

 ring, which he speaks of as a large variety, not much esteemed, and supposed to spawn in tidal 

 water, may possibly be the same as C. cestivalis. The Black-bellies, if their habits are properly 

 described, have much in common with G. cestivalis. There is, however, much to be learned con- 

 cerning all the fishes of this group, and it is more than probable that careful study will reveal facts 

 of which we are at present entirely ignorant. 



ABUNDANCE. The Alewife is by far the most abundant of our river fishes, and throughout 

 the whole Southern region where they are caught, together with the Shad, the number of individuals 

 is not far from ten to twenty times as great as that of the Shad. For instance, in the Albemarle re- 

 gion, in 1879, 750,000 Shad were taken and upwards of 20,000,000 Alewives. Again, in 1880, about 

 600,000 Shad were taken from the Potomac, and 11,000,000 All-wives. By far the greatest num 

 ber of the Alewives thus taken were "Glut Herring," G. astivalis; but, since the two species are 

 sold together, without discrimination, no accurate statement of proportional numbers can be made. 

 In the Northern rivers they are not taken in any great numbers, owing to the fact that the meshes 

 of the nets used in the capture of the Shad are too large to retain the fish. In the Connecticut 

 and other rivers a large mesh is required by law, but throughout this entire region the abundance 

 of valuable sea-fishes is so great that there could be but little gain in capturing the Alewives. 

 There is on Cape Cod an extensive alewife fishery, described in another chapter. This has for 

 more than a century been regulated by law, and the fish are allowed during stated periods to 

 swim without interruption to their spawning beds. The streams in which they are taken are so 



'Plymouth retains a fishing privilege in this brook within Wurehnm. The Alewives, arowo told, were more 

 numerous in 1815 than for some years. 



