NAMES OF THE SCUP. 387 



English fish, and its proper etymology as a fish name ia very different. Another Indian word, 

 " poghaden," a corrupted form of the Abnaki name for the menhaden, or moss-bunker, has been 

 changed to "pogy" and " porgy," thus leading to much confusion. "Scuppaug" is an excellent 

 name for the fish, and its claims for general adoption will be recognized by all who wish to see 

 preserved the name of the aboriginal languages of America. 



On the Virginia coast the Southern Scup is known as the "Fair Maid." The name "Porgy" 

 is in use about Charleston, South Carolina, but is usually applied to other members of the same 

 family. Their range is much more limited to the south and extends farther to the north than that 

 of the Sheepshead. Holbrook wrote in 1860: " The Porgy is found along our coasts at all seasons 

 of the year, though most abundant in June and July." He further states that its southern limit 

 on the Atlantic border is Cape Florida, a statement probably not susceptible of proof. 



The Northern Scup rarely passes the boundary of Cape Cod; in 1878, however, thirty-seven 

 were taken at the Milk Island weir off Thatcher's Island, Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and they 

 appear to be increasing in abundance. 



This species does not appear to be indigenous north of Cape Cod. Storer gives the following 

 account of its introduction: "Mr. James Newcomb, fishmonger in the Boston market, informs me 

 that in the year 1831 or 1832 a smack-load of Scapangs arrived in Boston Harbor. A portion of 

 them were purchased by subscription among the fishermen in the market and thrown into the 

 harbor. The next season two specimens were caught from our wharves; in the summer of 1835, 

 one individual was taken at Nahant, and was considered a very strange fish, no specimen having 

 been known to have been seen there before ; in 1836, still another was captured at Nahant. As no 

 specimen had ever been taken so far north before, and as the few taken wonld lead to the inference 

 that those which had been transplanted from Buzzard's Bay had not bred in the cold waters of 

 this portion of Massachusetts Bay, we are led to believe that the individuals taken immediately 

 around Boston were of the number originally brought from the South. In the year 1834 or 1835, 

 Capt. William Downes, of Holmes' Hole, carried a smack-load of this species from Vineyard Sound 

 and threw them overboard in Plymouth Harbor." Storer, writing in 1867, says that "within a few 

 years small numbers have appeared north of Cape Cod and are yearly captured at Wellfleet and 

 Sandwich." 



Judging from the rare occurrence of the species thus introduced, it can hardly be considered 

 to have become naturalized ; the few which have been taken were doubtless summer stragglers. 

 In the Boston Society's museum is a specimen taken at Swampscott, June 29, 1860, by J. Phillips. 

 In the Salem Museum is another taken in Salem Harbor, July 23, 1860, by C. A. Putnam. Scup 

 become abundant on the south side of Cape Cod from the 5th to the 12th of May, which would 

 allow ample time for the appearance of a part of the school off the eastern coast of Massachusetts 

 as early as the dates recorded. 



Mr. Hinckley, president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Kailroad, informs us 

 that in the winter of 1833 he found a dead Scnppaug on the Cohasset shore; this was its first 

 occurrence in that locality, and none of the fishermen knew it. 



In 1856, Captain Atwood recorded the Scup as very rare at Provincetown. 



"Sometimes," says Captain Atwood, "I have seen a dozen of these fish. The Scup were never 

 here at all abundantly ; only scattering individuals have been taken from year to year. Since 

 1842, when the mackerel nets were first set in the outside of the harbor, Scup were first seen, and 

 a few have been seen since." 



The history of this species, like that of the bluefish, has been very carefully worked out by 



