What is "hickory shad"

Mattowacca \Mat`to*wac"ca\, n. [Indian name.] (Zo["o]l.) An American clupeoid fish ( Clupea mediocris), similar to the shad in habits and appearance, but smaller and less esteemed for food; -- called also hickory shad, tailor shad, fall herring, and shad herring.

Fall \Fall\, n.

1. The act of falling; a dropping or descending be the force of gravity; descent; as, a fall from a horse, or from the yard of ship.

2. The act of dropping or tumbling from an erect posture; as, he was walking on ice, and had a fall.

3. Death; destruction; overthrow; ruin.

   They thy fall conspire.
   --Denham.

   Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
   --Prov. xvi. 18.

4. Downfall; degradation; loss of greatness or office; termination of greatness, power, or dominion; ruin; overthrow; as, the fall of the Roman empire.

   Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.
   --Pope.

5. The surrender of a besieged fortress or town; as, the fall of Sebastopol.

6. Diminution or decrease in price or value; depreciation; as, the fall of prices; the fall of rents.

7. A sinking of tone; cadence; as, the fall of the voice at the close of a sentence.

8. Declivity; the descent of land or a hill; a slope.

9. Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara.

10. The discharge of a river or current of water into the ocean, or into a lake or pond; as, the fall of the Po into the Gulf of Venice.
    --Addison.

11. Extent of descent; the distance which anything falls; as, the water of a stream has a fall of five feet.

12. The season when leaves fall from trees; autumn.

    What crowds of patients the town doctor kills, Or how, last fall, he raised the weekly bills.
    --Dryden.

13. That which falls; a falling; as, a fall of rain; a heavy fall of snow.

14. The act of felling or cutting down. ``The fall of timber.''
    --Johnson.

15. Lapse or declension from innocence or goodness. Specifically: The first apostasy; the act of our first parents in eating the forbidden fruit; also, the apostasy of the rebellious angels.

16. Formerly, a kind of ruff or band for the neck; a falling band; a faule.
    --B. Jonson.

17. That part (as one of the ropes) of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting.

    Fall herring (Zo["o]l.), a herring of the Atlantic ( Clupea mediocris); -- also called tailor herring, and hickory shad.

    To try a fall, to try a bout at wrestling.
    --Shak.

Hickory shad (Alosa mediocris) is a member of the herring family Clupeidae, ranging along the East Coast of the United States from Florida to the Gulf of Maine. It is an anadromous fish species, meaning that it spawns in freshwater portions of rivers but spends most of its life at sea. It is subject to fishing, both historic and current, but it is often confused with or simply grouped together with catch statistics for American shad (Alosa sapidissima).