208 NEW YORK STATE MUSEIUM 



100,000 were obtained from a single female on the Potomac. 

 There is great mortality among the shad after spawning. Dead 

 fish of both sexes are frequently seen floating in the water in 

 the late months of summer. 



Mitchill states that the shad visits New York annually about 

 the end of March or beginning of April; that is, ascends toward 

 the sources of the Hudson; that it usually weighs 4 or 5 pounds, 

 but sometimes as much as 12 pounds. De Kay says a large 

 variety, supposed to be an old fish, and weighing from 10 to 12 

 pounds, were frequently taken in the Hudson, under the name 

 of yellow backs. The shad, in his time, ascended the river 150 

 miles, to spawn, and descended in the latter part of May. The 

 introduction of gill nets, he writes, has caused a scarcity of the 

 fish and will drive them from the river before many years. 



Nets set off shore in Gravesend bay in the fall frequently 

 inclose large quantities of young shad, sometimes a ton and 

 a half at one time, during their migration seaward, but they 

 are at once liberated. The fish are usually about 6 to 

 8 inches long. Oct. 17, 1895, 60 or 70 were caught 

 in John B. De Nyse's pound, among them a male 11 

 inches long and 2f inches deep, and a female 12 inches long 

 and 3 inches deep. Oct. 31, 1895, a male 13^ inches long and 

 3J inches deep, and a female 13^- inches long and 3J inches deep 

 were obtained in the same pound. Apparently the shad do not 

 all remain at sea after their first migration till they are sexually 

 mature. In the Potomac river young shad 8 to 9 inches long 

 occasionally enter in the spring with the adults in large num- 

 bers. Mr De Nyse informs me that in the first spring run of 

 small shad in Gravesend bay fully 90^ are males. 



Genus sardinella Cuvier and Valenciennes 



Small herrings of the tropical seas, with the vertebrae in re- 

 duced numbers, about 40 to 44, and with the scales large, usually 

 firm and adherent, often crossed by vertical striae. Ventral 

 scutes strong, 25 to 35 in number; adipose eyelid obsolete; lower 

 jaw projecting, upper jaw somewhat emarginate, teeth weak; 

 ventrals inserted behind front of dorsal; body compressed; 



