THE HERRING FAMILY. 173 



Shad are taken at Savannah in the latter part of January. 

 As the season advances, they enter the rivers successively 

 along the coast towards the north, and are not found in the 

 -waters near Boston until about May. 



It was supposed at one time that Shad, as I have already 

 remarked, were of southern birth, and that the same great 

 migratory shoal gradually found its way along the coast. It 

 has since been pretty clearly ascertained that this is not the 

 case ; and it is now thought, with much show of reason, that 

 they do not wander far from the mouths of the bays and 

 rivers from which they migrated the preceding summer or 

 autumn. 



In more than one respect there is a close analogy between 

 the Shad and Salmon ; both are anadromous fishes, changing 

 their habitat annually from salt to fresh water to spawn; 

 both present the same phenomenon of never having any food — 

 in whatever process of digestion — in their stomachs, after 

 reaching fresh water ; and both are not only fish of extremely 

 rapid growth in salt water, but present the same peculiarity 

 of proportions, that is, a remarkably small head and deep 

 fleshy body. 



Frank Forester's idea that the Shad habitually takes a bait 

 or an artificial fly is an erroneous one ; it is not a predatory 

 fish, and it is to be feared that his impression, or hope of its 

 being classed among game fish at some future day, will 

 never be realized ; though there may have been rare instances 

 in which it has been taken with a fly, and occasionally with 

 a small silver minnow. I was once fortunate enough to hook 

 three in succession, when fishing for Perch with a bright 

 little minnow below Fairmount Dam, and secured two, the 

 third was lost for want of a landing-net, for the mouth is 

 extremely delicate. They have also been taken, though 

 rarely, with shad-ro^. A friend of the writer, a novice in 



