FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 
93 
mortality is a serious menace to the health of people living in the vicinity. The belief is that the 
fish were unintentionally introduced with the shad.” (Bean, 1903, p. 200.) It is supposed to 
have reached Cayuga and Seneca Lakes in a natural way. 
Chesapeake localities. — (a) Previous records: From virtually all streams tributary to Chesa- 
peake Bay. ( b ) The numerous young in the present collection, ranging in length from 30 to 165 
millimeters, are from the following localities: Beam-trawl catches in many parts of the bay, from 
Annapolis, Md., to Old Point, Va., including the Potomac River below Cedar Point, at depths 
ranging from 5 to 28 fathoms, January 15 to April 28, 1914, January 16 to April 25, 1916, January 
22 to January 27, 1921, and February 17 and April 20, 1922. Taken with seines in Potomac River 
from Washington, D. C., to Lewisetta, Va., September 21, 1911, June 7 to December 3, 1912, and 
October 24 and 25, 1921; and in the bay from Havre de Grace, Md., to Lynnhaven Roads, Va., 
June 22 to November 21, 1921, and April 8 to October 27, 1922. 
Comparative statistics of the alewife product of Maryland and Virginia for various years from 1880 
to 1921 
Years 
Pounds 
Value. 
Years 
Pounds 
Value 
1880 
16, 129,372 
15, 463, 905 
17, 964, 779 
30, 408, 692 
28, 432, 335 
29, 864, 922 
30, 828, 969 
$215, 967 
118,858 
150, 660 
235, 467 
225, 150 
189, 074 
194,294 
1901 
27, 660, 601 
29, 088, 836 
66, 690, 000 
51, 425, 300 
28,621,710 
23, 736, 788 
25, 339, 009 
$206, 732 
228,715 
328,000 
283, 874 
297, 729 
436, 448 
390, 529 
1887 
1904 
1888 
1908 
1890 
1909 
1891 
1915 
1896 
1920 
1897 
1921 
Note. — The catch of alewives in these States, outside of the Chesapeake Bay, is included for some years but is practically 
negligible. 
26. Genus ALOSA Linck. The shad 
The genus Alosa is described as differing from Pomolobus in having the cheeks deeper than 
long, the upper jaw deeply indented anteriorly, and the toothless jaws of the adult. These 
differences separate the genus very satisfactorily from P. sestivalis and P. pseudoharengus, but in 
P. mediocris, with the exception of the toothless jaw of the adult Alosa, these differences become 
very slight or disappear; for in P. mediocris the cheeks are at least as deep as long and an indentation 
in the upper jaw is distinctly present. It is the opinion of the present authors, therefore, that the 
genus Alosa is scarcely tenable. 
36. Alosa sapidissima (Wilson). Shad. 
Clupea sapidissima Wilson, in Rees’s New Cyclopedia, IX, no pagination and no date (about 1811); Philadelphia. Bean, 
1883, p. 366. 
Alosa sapidissima Uhler and Lugger, 1876, ed. I, p. 157; ed. II, p. 133; Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 427, PI. LXXII, 
fig. 191; Smith and Bean, 1899, p. 184; Fowler, 1912, p. 51. 
Head 3.2 to 4.3; depth 2.7 to 3.9; D. 17 to 19; A. 19 to 23 (usual number 21 or 22); scales 
about 52 to 64. Body elongate, compressed, deeper in adult than in young, average depth in 
length to base of caudal of young of 35 to 100 millimeters, 3.5, adult females about 2.75; dorsal 
profile nearly straight on head, gently convex from nape to dorsal, ventral outline gently and evenly 
rounded, the abdomen compressed, with sharp ventral edge, provided with scutes; head rather 
small, low, and comparatively long; snout slightly tapering, 3.2 to 4.7 in head; eye 3 to 5.95; 
interorbital 3.95 to 5.85; mouth rather large, terminal; maxillary broad, reaching middle of eye 
in young (50 millimeters long), to or a little beyond posterior margin of eye in adults, 1.85 to 2.7 
in head; cheek deeper than long, narrower below than above; mandible not projecting, included in 
upper jaw and not entering into the dorsal profile, its upper margin rather gently elevated, without 
a prominent angle near the middle of its length; teeth in the adult wholly wanting, the young 
with small, weak teeth on the anterior part of the jaws; gill rakers rather numerous, long and 
slender, increasing greatly in number with age, specimens 35 to 70 millimeters in length with 26 
to 31 gill rakers on the lower limb of the first arch, specimens 110 to 180 millimeters long with 34 
to 41, adults 413 to 580 millimeters in length with 62 to 76 gill rakers; scales of moderate size, 
tt<r 
