162 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



lower maxillaries. None, apparently, on the vomer. These 

 are necessary for the capture of the water beetles that then 

 constitute a part of their food. The jaws of the adult are, 

 as is well known, smooth. 



" Of the further growth of the shad, we cannot as yet 

 speak with certainty, although there are pretty good 

 grounds for an opinion. Mr. Frederic Russell, late Com- 

 missioner from Connecticut, first called attention to some 

 small AlossR, about nine inches long, called by the fisher- 

 men, ' chicken shad,' or 'Connecticut river alewives.' He 

 was led to consider them partly grown fishes, from the fact 

 that they all were males. Of many hundreds examined, 

 only one female could be found, and there the ova were not 

 developed. The fish taken for artificial breeding at Holy- 

 oke were then compared, and it was found that they were 

 of three, if not of four distinct sets or sizes. The smallest 

 were the ' chicken shad,' and were all males ; the next were 

 but half the size of the largest, and were males and 

 females ; so also were the largest of all. Hence we may at 

 least guess, that the young of the autumn go down, as min- 

 nows of four inches, to the sea. The next spring the males 

 are fecund (so too in the salmon parr), and seek the fresh 

 water, urged by the sexual instinct, and are the chicken 

 shad or yearlings. Not so the females, which, not yet 

 sexually developed, remain in the salt water, or in the 

 estuaries. When two years old both sexes are fecund and 

 seek the river together. These are the half-grown or two- 

 year-olds. The third season they arc large fish, and may 

 be termed three-year-olds. But these throe-ycar-olds have, 



