HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MENHADEN. 15 



applied in New England, and even, occasionally, as mentioned above, in 

 Kew York. South of New York it is used for Brevoortia tyrannus only. 

 The name is corrupted into "old- wife" and "ell- wife," "wife," and on 

 the Connecticut River appears under the guise of "ell- whop." At 

 Maurice Eiver the Brevoortia is called "old-wife chebog," "chebog" 

 being probably of Indian origin. Thomas Morton, writing in 1632 of 

 the fishes of Virginia, gives the names "shadd" and "allize" as in use 

 among the colonists at that time.* The original derivation of the word 

 "alewife" is somewhat obscure, though it may probably have originated 

 in Alatisa, the name applied by Ausonius to the European shads in his 

 celebrated poem on the Moselle River— 



Quis non norit, 



Stridentesque focis opsonia plebis alausas. 



The transition through the French "alose," the English "allis," 

 " allice," or " alize," is not difficult, and when we find these names 

 together with "alewife" applied indiscriminately to the same fish, it is, 

 to say the least, suggestive. Such an etymology is at least more satis- 

 factory than that of Josselyn, so often quoted : "The Alewife is like a 

 Herrin, but has a bigger bellie; therefore called an Alewife."t 



6. Zoological names. 



Latrohe's description of Clu^ea tyrannus. 



30. Our species was first described by Mr. B. H. Latrobe, in a communi- 

 cation to the American Philosophical Society in 1803,| under the name 

 Cluj)ea tyrannus. Although this article, and the name therein proposed, 

 have long" since been lost sight of, there can be little doubt that they 

 refer to the menhaden, and that the laws of priority demand that the 

 species shall henceforth be known as Brevoortia tyrannus. The fishes of 

 the Chesapeake and its tributaries have, until within the past three years, 

 been very little studied, and the habits of the menhaden in those waters 

 are so difi'erent that it is not strange for Northern ichthyologists to have 

 made mistaken identifications of Latrobe's specific name.§ In fact, it 

 was supposed, not many years since, that the southern limit of the men- 

 haden was north of the Capes of Delaware, while its habit of ascend- 



* New English Canaan ; or New Canaan ; containing an abstract of New England. 

 Force's Hist. Tracts, vol. ii, Tract 5. 



t An Account of two voyages to New England, a Description of the country, natives, 

 and creatures. By John Josselyn, Gent. 1(575. Col. Mas. Hist. Soc, 3d series, III. 

 1833. 



\k Drawing and Descrijition of the Clupea Tyrannus and Oniscus prsegustator. 

 By Benjamin Henry Latrobe, F. A. P. S. < Transactions of the American Philosophical 

 Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge. Vol. V, 1802, p. 77. 



§ Dr. Dekay, misled by the name " alewife," which he supposed to be applied to the 

 same species at the north as in southern waters, ai)plied Latrobe's name to the north- 

 ern " alewife," calling it Alosa tyrannus, a usage which was concurred in by Storer and 

 by Cuvier and Valenciennes. The same name was referred to the shad by Professor 

 Gill in some of his earlier writings. 



