8 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
INTRODUCTION 
The field work that resulted in the present report was begun in 1912 when Lewis 
Radcliffe and the late William W. Welsh undertook a study of the anadromous 
elupeoids principally on the Potomac River and at the head of Chesapeake Bay. 
These studies were continued more or less intermittently until the winter of 1914-15, 
when the Fisheries steamer Fish Hawk was assigned to this work and the scope was 
enlarged to include a general biological and physical examination of Chesapeake 
Bay. This work, which was then under the supervision of Lewis Radcliffe, was 
interrupted by the World War. It was resumed in 1920 under the immediate 
supervision of Dr. R. P. Cowles, of Johns Hopkins University. In 1921 the general 
survey was supplemented by a special investigation of the fishes of Chesapeake Bay 
by the authors of the present report and was continued at intervals until the fall of 
1922, when all the field operations pertaining to the Chesapeake Bay investigations 
were brought to a close. 
Collections of fishes were made during the general survey, and especially many 
young fish were taken. The operations of the general survey were almost wholly 
in offshore waters and particularly in the “deep holes.” These collections were 
supplemented by the special survey, chiefly with collections made in the shallow 
inshore waters. Much attention was given to the spawning and feeding habits of 
fishes, also to migrations, seasonal abundance, etc. Special attention was directed 
to the methods employed in the fisheries, manner of handling and marketing the 
catches, prices received by the fishermen, wholesale dealers, and retailers, etc. 
Scientific descriptions and keys, made as nontechnical as is consistent with 
the purpose of the work in hand, have been introduced, all based upon specimens, 
so far as available, collected in Chesapeake Bay. For the species of which no 
specimens were at hand, the source of the account given is stated. An attempt was 
made in the descriptions drawn up directly from specimens always to discuss the 
various characters commonly described in the same sequence. It is hoped that this 
arrangement will prove to be a convenience to those who may have occasion to use 
the descriptions. 
Preceding each description, and following the scientific name of the species, are 
one or more common names. Those that are of more or less local use only are placed 
inside quotation marks. Next follow certain references to literature. The first of 
these gives the exact name used by the discoverer of the species and a sufficiently 
complete reference to the work in which the species was described and also the type 
locality for the species. Then follow references to the local fauna and to the general 
work by Jordan and Evermann— namely, Bulletin No. 47 of the U. S. National 
Museum. For all references except the first one only the date of publication and 
the page number or numbers on which the particular species is discussed are given 
Complete titles to the works referred to are found in the bibliography (pp. 358-366). 
In the matter that follows the descriptions, the subheads mentioned below are 
discussed without naming them in the text in the sequence in which they are listed 
here. 
(a) A brief statement of the number and range in size of the specimens upon which 
the description was based. 
