FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 
89 
The glut herring and the branch herring are not separated for the market, and the data and 
remarks concerning the commercial importance of the branch herring, therefore, also include the 
present species. 
Habitat . — Nova Scotia to St. Johns River, Fla. 
Chesapeake localities. — (a) Previous records: Many parts of the bay and virtually all streams 
tributary to the bay. ib) The numerous young in the present collection, ranging in length from 
20 to 119 millimeters to inches), are from the following localities: Beam-trawl catches in 
many parts of the bay from Annapolis, Md., to Old Point Comfort, Va., including the Potomac 
River below Mathias Point, at depths ranging from 5 to 28 fathoms, January 15 to March 24, 1914, 
January 16 to March 12, 1916, January 22 to 26, 1921, February 14 to 19, 1922. Taken with seines 
in the Potomac River from Bryans Point, Md., to Lewisetta, Va., October 14 to November 11, 
1911, June 17 to December 3, 1912, October 29, 1914, August 8, 1921; in the bay at Havre de 
Grace, Md., May 10, 1922, August 26, 27, 1921; Baltimore, May 4, 1922; Annapolis, Md., May 3, 
1922; Love Point, Md., September 5, 1921; Buckroe Beach, Va., April 10, 1922. 
Fig. 51. — Pomolobus pseudoharengus. From a specimen 11.5 inches long 
35. Pomolobus pseudoharengus (Wilson). Alewife; “Branch herring”; Big-eyed herring; “Her- 
ring”; “Gray herring”; “White herring”. 
Clupea pseudoharengus Wilson, Rees’s Cyclopedia, IX, no pagination and no date, about 1811; Philadelphia. 
Pomolobus pseudoharengus Uhler and Lugger, 1876, ed. I, p. 158; ed. II, p. 135 (in part). 
Pomolobus vernalis Goode, in McDonald, 1879, p. 14. 
Clupea vernalis Bean 1883, p. 366. 
Pomolobus pseudoharengus Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 426, PI. LXXI, fig. 189; Smith and Bean, 1899, p. 183; Ever- 
mann and Hildebrand, 1910, p. 158; Fowler, 1912, p. 51. 
Pomolobus mediocris Evermann and Hildebrand, 1910, p. 158 (not of Mitchill). 
Head 2.9 to 4.3; depth 2.8 to 4.15 (average for 22 specimens 3.23); D. 15 to 19 (usually 16 or 
17); A. 17 to 21; scales 46 to 49. Bod}’ rather deep, compressed, slightly deeper in the adult than 
in young; dorsal profile from snout to dorsal fin gently and nearly evenly rounded; ventral outline 
more strongly convex than the dorsal, with a slight angle at base of mandible; the margin of the abdo- 
men compressed and provided with strong, bony scutes; head rather short and deep; snout rather 
blunt, 3.5 to 5 in head; eye large, longer than snout, 2.6 to 4.15 (average for 22 specimens 3.12) in 
head; interorbital 4 to 6.45; mouth moderate, slightly superior; maxillary broad, reaching about 
opposite middle of eye, 2 to 2.65 in head; cheek broad, its width greater than its depth; mandible 
slightly projecting, the tip not included in the upper jaw but not entering into the general dorsal 
outline, its upper margin strongly elevated, with a prominent angle near the middle of its length; 
teeth very weak, present on premaxillaries and tip of lower jaw in the young, sometimes persisting 
in the adult;; gill rakers rather slender, of moderate length, increasing in number with age, young 
30 to 58 millimeters in length with 22 to 29 gill rakers on the lower limb of the first arch, specimens 
ranging from 158 to 284 millimeters with 33 to 40 gill rakers; scales of moderate size, cycloid, more 
or less deciduous; ventral scutes 19 to 22 in advance of ventrals and 11 to 15 behind ventrals, total 
number of scutes 30 to 35; dorsal fin rather small, its outer margin very slightly concave, the origin 
