FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 85 
run. In the lower bay the hickory shad is often the principal species caught at the very end of 
the fishing season. 
The maximum length attained by the hickory shad, according to published accounts, is about 
2 feet. Uhler and Lugger (1876, p. 159) state that it attains a length almost equal to that of the 
shad. Observations made during the present investigations indicate that the maximum length 
now attained by this fish in Chesapeake Bay is about 18 inches, with a weight of 2 pounds. The 
average length of market fish, however, is only about 15 inches and the weight 1 pound. 
The hickory shad has some commercial value, especially in the southern parts of the bay, 
where it is one of the first in the spring and one of the last fish in the fall to be caught in considerable 
quantities. During 1920 it ranked fourteenth among the fishes of Chesapeake Bay in quantity and 
fifteenth in value, the catch amounting to 218,620 pounds, worth $8,245. The bulk of the catch 
is taken in pound nets in March, after which a decline occurs and only stragglers are caught after 
April 15 in all sections of the bay except in the extreme northern stretches, where the spring run 
occurs later, as shown elsewhere. A smaller catch of fish is made in the late fall, and sometimes 
at the very end of the fishing season the hickory shad is the principal species caught. The follow- 
ing catches made by a set of two pound nets in Lynnhaven Roads, Va., in 1914 is somewhat typical 
of the hickory-shad catch made in the southern parts of the bay: March 10 to 31, 25 to 600 pounds 
per day; April 1 to 15, 10 to 100 pounds per day; April 16 to 30, less than 10 pounds per day; 
November 1 to 16 (end of season); none to 100 pounds per day. 
Fig. 44 . — Pomolobus xstivalis. Male, 10.6 inches long 
The fishermen separate the hickory shad from the alewives and shad, as the prices of each of 
these species differ widely. In April, 1922, run-boat buyers were paying 5 cents each for hickory 
shad, regardless of size. When the fish are packed in boxes and shipped direct to market they are 
sold by weight. The retail price in 1922 ranged from 10 to 15 cents per pound. 
Habitat . — Maine to Florida, entering streams, except in New England. 
Chesapeake localities. — (a) From virtually all streams tributary to Chesapeake Bay and from 
many localities within the bay. (5) The immature specimens in the collection, ranging from 155 
to 255 millimeters (6Vs to 10 inches) in length, are from Annapolis, Md., to Smith Point, Va., taken 
with the beam trawl at depths ranging from 16 to 27 fathoms from January 19 to March 18, 1914; 
Lynnhaven Roads, Va., June 9; Buckroe Beach, Va., June 22, 1921, taken in pound nets. 
34. Pomolobus sestivalis (Mitchill). Herring; Glut herring; Blue herring; Greenback herring; 
Alewife. 
Clupea xstivalis Mitchill, Trans., Lit. and Phil. Soe., N. Y., I, 1814, 456; New York. Bean, 1883, p. 366. 
Pomolobus pseudoharengus Uhler and Lugger, 1876, ed. I, p. 158; ed. II, p. 135 (in part). 
Pomolobus xstivalis Goode, in McDonald, 1879, p. 14; Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 426, PI. LXXI, fig. 190; Smith and 
Bean, 1899, p. 183; Everinann and Hildebrand, 1910, p. 158. 
Head 3.33 to 4.5; depth 3.35 to 4.25 (average for 22 specimens, 3.6); D. 16 to 19; A. 18 to 21; 
scales 47 to 52. Body moderately elongate, compressed, slightly deeper in the adult than in the 
young; dorsal profile from snout to dorsal evenly and very gently convex; ventral outline more 
stronglv convex than the dorsal, with a very slight angle at base of mandible; the margin of abdomen 
compressed, with sharp bony scutes; head moderate; snout rather long, 3.7 to 5 in head; eye small, 
