GIZZARD SHAD. 871 
water shed between the lake and the Ohio River. It abounds in the 
Licking Reservoir, and is a great nuisance to the fishermen, who some- 
times find that two-thirds of all the fish in the net are these ‘ herring,’ 
asthey termthem.” ‘Thisepecies feeds upon weeds, 2. ¢., vegetable debris, 
alge, conferve, desmids, and diatoms. 
As a food fish, the Gizzard Shad is almost worthless. The flesh is soft, 
coarse, and insipid, as well as full of bones. Mr. Klippart states that it 
Is sometimes split and salted on Lake Hrie and shipped with other fish 
of low grade as “‘Lake Shad.” He also states that “forty years ago it 
was esteemed an excellent food fish cn the Cincinnati market,” which, if 
true, shows either that the Cincinnatians do not now buy fish for their 
good looks (for the gizzard Shad is a handsome fish), or else in forty 
years they have progressed a long way toward epicureanism. 
The popular name “Gizzard Shad” is given in given in allusion to the 
gizzard-like form of the stomach, which resembles that of a hen. 
“Hickory Shad” is said to allude to a fancied resembance between the 
stomach and a hickory nut. 
Lynonymy.—This fish is now considered as a form or variety of the 
common Hastern Gizzard Shad, which is a salt water fish, although, like 
the Shad, it freely enters the rivers. The oldest name for the Western 
form is heterurus of Rafinesque, given in allusion to the inequality of 
the lobes of the tail. The difference between heterwrum and cepedianum 
is not great, the greater arch of the back in cepedianuwm being the main. 
difference. 
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Clupeoid fishes, with the mouth moderate or rather large, terminal, the jaws nearly 
equal; the maxillary composed of about three pieces, not extending beyond the eye; 
dentition extremely various, the teeth typically feeble; gill-rakers more or less elongate, 
slender; gill openings wide, the membranes not united; branchiostegals rather fow ; 
body compressed, the belly serrated ; scales moderats or rather large, deciduous; no lat- 
eral line; caudal fin forked; dorsal fin moderate, nearly median, nearly opposite the 
ventrals (which, are absent in a foreign genus); anal fin moderate or leng, genera 
about twelve, although a much greater number has been described ; species about 120, 
inhabiting all seas, some of them ascending or remaining in fresh waters; many of 
them are highly valued as food fishes; others are coarse and full of small bones; most 
of the species are closely related to the typical genus Clupea, bat the variations in the 
position of the rudimentary teeth are extremely great. These variations have given 
rise to a great number of generic names, most of which are probably useless. 
