SHADS. 93 



The American Shad {Clupea sapidissima) is closely allied to 

 our own Shads, and its flesh is said to be superior in flavour. 

 The United States Fisheries Commission has achieved great 

 success in its efforts to propagate the Shad in nurseries and to 

 liberate the little fishes on hatching, with the result that the 

 Shad is now declared to be one of the best and cheapest fishes in 

 the American market. The Commission has also been successful 

 in transplanting the Shad from the Atlantic coast of North 

 America to the Pacific coast, in the waters of which it did not 

 previously exist, and where it now abounds from Puget Sound 

 southwards to Point Concepcion, ascending the rivers to spawn in 

 May as it does on its native coast. In consequence of the 

 attention that has been bestowed upon it, the Clupea sapidissima 

 is commonly dubbed the " Commission Shad." 



Another important American fish is the Menhaden or Moss- 

 banker, Clupea menhaden, common on the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States. It is a coarse and bony fish, rarely eaten when 

 adult, but valuable on account of the rich oil which it yields in 

 abundance ; the refuse after the oil has been extracted from the 

 fish is used as a manure for the corn-fields ; the fresh fish is 

 largely used as bait. 



Hyperlophus (270) is a genus of fishes found at the present 

 day in the rivers and on the coasts of Chili and New South Wales, 

 and occurring in a fossil state in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of 

 Syria, Southern Europe and South America, and in the Eocene 

 shales of the Green River, Wyoming. It is distinguished from 

 the genus Clupea by having not only a row of ventral ridge-scales, 

 but a row of dorsal ridge-scales extending from the back of the 

 head to the dorsal fin. 



The Hickory-Shad, Chatoessus or Dorosoma, 267, is a deep- 

 bodied fish of the rivers and estuaries of Eastern America, Eastern 

 Asia, and Australia, with small, toothless mouth, a reduced 

 maxillary bone, and a suprabranchial accessory organ of respira- 

 tion over the fourth gill arch. The stomach is muscular and 

 thickened, and has the form of a hickory nut, whence the name 

 Hickory-shad given to these fishes by the Americans ; the name 

 is applied in particular to the species C. cepedianum of the rivers 

 and estuaries of the Eastern United States. The belly is serrated, 



