14 EEPOET OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tail," "yellow-tailed shad," and " green-tail" refer to the yellowish-green 

 tint of the caudal fiu, observed only in Southern specimens. The former 

 of these names has led to some confusion among our correspondents, 

 the same name being applied in Georgia and Florida to a very different 

 fish, Baiy diella punctata (Linn.) Gill. 



28. An allusion to the oily nature of the flesh is found in *' fat-back," 

 a name in general use in the Southern States. This name is sometimes 

 applied in Northampton County, Virginia, to the mullet [Mugil I'meatus). 

 In the last century it was used for the Albula conorhynchus.* 



The conflict of names among the American representatives of the herring 



family. 



29. The representatives of the herring family most abundant in the 

 waters of Great Britain are three — the shad {Alosa finta), the alewife 

 (Alosa vulgaris), and the herring {Glupea harengus). Their names were 

 at an early date appropriated for representatives of the same family on 

 our own coast. The name "shad "is, from Maine to Florida, yielded 

 by common consent to our Alosa sapidissima, which, in many particulars, 

 resembles its namesake, though they " be bigger than the English 

 Shaddes and fatter," as an early writer declares.t 



In the Southern States this fish is sometimes called " white-shad," 

 to distinguish it from the Dorosoma Cepedianum, there known as the 

 "mud-shad" or "gizzard-shad." On the coast of ]N"ew England, the 

 mattowocca or tailor-herring [Pomolohtcs mediocris) is sometimes called 

 the "hickory-shad," and also the "sea-shad," under which name it is 

 often confounded with the true shad, which is known from recent invest- 

 igations to be frequently taken far out at sea in company with mackerel, 

 alewives, and menhaden. In the Bermudas, there being no large clu- 

 jjeoid fish, the same name has been for centuries applied to two species 

 which somewhat resemble it externally — Eucinostomus gula and Eucinos- 

 tomiis Lcfroyi, Goode. 



The " herring," or " English herring," of New England north of Cape 

 Cod is identical with that of Great Britain, but at certain points in 

 Southern New England, such as New Bedford, this name is transferred 

 to Pomolohus pseudoharengus, and on the Hudson River the usage is 

 general, though the species is occasionally called the alewife. South 

 of the Hudson the name "herring" is universally used in connection 

 with this species of Pomolohus, and the allied Pomolohns mediocris or 

 "mattowocca," which is known as the "tailor-herring" or sometimes, 

 as in the Saint John's River and about Cape Cod, as the " hickory-shad." 

 In the great lakes the name " herring" is also represented, being applied 

 to one of the whitefish family, the lake-herring [Argyrosomus clupei- 

 formis). 



To Pomolohus pseudoharengus the name "alewife" is commonly ap- 



* See Garden, in Correspondence of Linnaeus, p. 335. 



t New England's Prospect. By William Wood. London, 1634. 



