BIOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 93 



sectional pride has something to do with this resistance to change, for the 

 names are strictly regional; and when there is an encroachment of a foreign 

 name, it can usually be traced to the presence of outsiders in a local fishery. 

 For instance, menhaden is not the common name of the fish south of Rhode 

 Island; yet we find it common in Florida. The fishery in Florida was de- 

 veloped late by Northern shad fishermen. The same is true in Maine, where 

 the common name is pogy; yet an equally acceptable name is menhaden, in- 

 troduced there by Rhode Island fishermen who carried their local names. 

 The name menhaden is endemic to southeastern New England and the fish is 

 recognized there by this name only. 



In Maine and Massachusetts pogy and menhaden are the most common 

 names. Southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island favor menhaden almost 

 exclusively. Fishermen of Connecticut lean to bony-fish, as do those of 

 certain sections of Long Island. Fishermen of the New York City vicinity 

 and along the New Jersey coast know the fish as mossbunker or bunker. In 

 Maryland and Virginia it is known as alewife, probably a corruption of 

 allizes, a colonial name used in common with shadd, another name for men- 

 haden that has held through the centuries and which is still used in some 

 places (Goode, 1879, 1884). In North Carolina the fish is known as jatback 

 and shadd, both of colonial origin (Lawson, 1709). 



Each of the names is derived from some physical characteristic, resem- 

 blance to other fish or functional use. Bony-fish and hardhead refer to the 

 heavy bony head. The names bug-fish and bug-head, common in Virginia, 

 allude to the parasite, Oleucira praegustator, which is generally present in 

 the mouths of menhaden in the south. Menhaden and pogie, from poghaden, 

 are Indian names meaning fertilizer; and shadd is an Indian name from the 

 Indians of Virginia. Fatback, common in North Carolina, refers to the 

 smooth plump back of the fish when it is in a well-nourished condition. The 

 southern New York and New Jersey mossbunker is a name given by the 

 early Dutch settlers who saw in the fish characteristics which recalled to 

 their minds a fish native to their homeland, the marshbanker.^ 



Other names for the menhaden are: porgie, yellow tail, yellow-tail shad, 

 shiner, herring, greentail, hard-head shad, old wife, chebog, bughead, and 

 bunkers. 



NATURAL HISTORY 



DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATIONS 



Menhaden are seasonal migrants north of Virginia, appearing along the 

 New Jersey coastline and northward only after the spring warming of the 

 ocean. In the Chesapeake region, according to Hildebrand and Schroeder 



3. The "scad," or horsemackerel, Trachurus lacuta, which visits the shores of north Europe in 

 immense schools swimming near the surface. 



