334 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



in foreign etymologieSj we leave the responsibility of this 

 to the manes of the literary executors of the venerable 

 ci-devant professor of natural history of Bologna, ^gil- 

 finuSj the modem Latin designation for the haddock, is, 

 according to the dictum of ' Rondolet and another/ from 

 the English words eagle and fins, which, as eagles do not 

 commonly exhibit these appendages, we take leave to 

 doubt ; hadou, the French for salt haddock, is evidently 

 our own word gaUicized. Of the trivial name of ' that 

 most dehcate of all gadeans,'* the dorse, the meaning 

 has not, that we are aware, been even attempted ; caUa- 

 rias,t its present Latin designation, is also a classic name, 

 though incorrectly endorsed upon the species. The whit- 

 ing is evidently so called from the silvery whiteness of its 

 abdomen and under flanks ; merlangus, its ichthyologic 

 name, comes of course from merlan, but whence that 

 comes still wants interpretation. Belon makes an amus- 

 ing blmider regarding the nomenclature of the G. car- 

 bonarius, a species next akin to this fish : in order to 

 contrive a plausible derivation, he is necessitated first to 

 mis-spell it, and for ' coal ' to read from a private manu- 



* Cuvier. 



t There is a fish, perhaps a gadean, mentioned Pliny, and 

 called by Tiim caUarias, which some have supposed to be the had- 

 dock. Apprised of this, and going for a brief sojourn to the 

 city of the Clyde, an easy etymologist might readily persuade 

 himself that the never-ceasing cry of ' caller haddie' under his 

 window was tautological, and that call was the Scotch mode of 

 pronouncing oaUarias, as haddie stood for haddock : vox et prce- 

 terea .' The haddock was unknown to Pliny, not being a Medi- 

 terranean fish. There is also another gadean, a Bhine fish not 

 unlike the haddock, which those of the district salt and dry 

 much after the manner of the Scotch. They call it aberdanum: 

 and here again a too confiding etymologist, on first seeing a spread- 

 eagled segilfinus fresh smoked from Aberdeen, would probably 

 seek to connect the two words, though he would of course only lose 

 his time, as is often done over such mere coincidences of sound. 



