14 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tail," "yellow-tailed sbad," and " green-tail" refer to the yeliowish-greea 

 tint of the candal fin, 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, Bairdiella 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 Uneatus). 

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



The conjlict 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) J and the herring {Ghipea 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 Cepediamtm, there known as the 

 "mud-shad" or " gizzard-sha<l." On the coast of New England, the 

 mattowocca or tailor- herring {Pomolohus 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- 

 j)eoid fish, the same name has been for centuries applied to two species 

 which somewhat resemble it externally — JEucinostomus gula and Eucinos- 

 tomus Lefroyi, Goode. 



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

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

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

 to Pomolohus pseudoharengus, and on the Hudson Eiver 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 Fomolohus, and the allied Pomolohus 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 represauted, 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 Linnipus, p. 335. 



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



