224 NATUEAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC AJSilMALS. 



the northern fishing grounds, as far south, at least, as the Capes of Delaware, though concerning 

 their occurrence iu southern waters there is dearth of information. In winter and spring they are 

 taken in Fisher's Island Sound and outside of Fisher's Island, on the coast of Eastern Connecticut; 

 and also in great quantities on Nantucket Shoals by the smacks, and are carried thence with 

 Cod into l^Tew York market. In 1871 it was estimated that the catch of Haddock here was 

 nearly equal to that of Cod, although the latter usually predominate. They abound north of Cape 

 Cod, in the Gulf of Maine, and in the Bay of Fundy, in the Basia of Minas, on the coast of Nova 

 Scotia, in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and in the Bay of Chaleur. In the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, 

 according to Captain Atwood, they are not very abundant, but the individuals taken are very large. 

 They are taken on the western coast of Newfoundland in winter; their northern limit appears to 

 be marked by the Straits of Belle Isle, latitude 52° N. The researches of Dr. A. S. Packard on 

 the coast of Labrador failed to bring this species to light, and fishermen of that region told him 

 that in the course of forty years' experience thay had never seen a Haddock. In 1863 and 1864 

 they were found in abundance on the southern border of the Grand Bank. Capt. R. H. Hurlbert 

 states that he has seen them in great abundance in May at Louisburg, Cape Breton, playing at 

 the surface among the reefs, but that they are not so frequent on the Grand Bank as on the 

 Western Bank, and, in turn, less common there than on George's Bank. 



In the Eastern Atlantic the range of the Haddock is somewhat wider, for they are found in the 

 seas of Iceland, the whole length of the Scandinavian coast to East Finmark and Varanger Fjord, 

 and on all the shores of Great Britain, and in the North Sea, where they are particularly abundant, 

 though rarely or never entering the Baltic. There is no evidence that they are found to the south of 

 the English Channel. De La Blanchfere states that they are caught in considerable numbers on the 

 coast of Manche. In the Eastern Atlantic, then, they are found between the parallels 48° and 66° ; 

 in the Western Atlantic between the parallels 38° and 53°. 



Names. — The Haddock is often called " Dickie" by Connecticut fishermen. Hadot and Hadou 

 are old French names for the same fish, though the species is now usually known by the name Egrefin. 

 In Scotland the name is said to be pronounced almost in the same way as in France, and is often 

 varied to Haddie. It is the Schellfisch of Germany. Concerning this fish many of our fishermen 

 entertain the same idea, which with them can hardly be called a superstition, that the black spots 

 upon their side are due to the impression of the thumb and finger of Saint Peter when the apostle 

 took the tribute money out of the mouth of a fish supposed to be of this species, the fisherman's 

 mark having been continued among its descendants ever since. This notion is prevalent also in 

 England, and in Southern Europe is attachedto other fishes, particularly to the John Dory, Zeus 

 faber: It is needless to say that no member of this family occurs in the Sea of Galilee. 



Movements. — Haddock are not so active and powerful as the Cod. Dr. Gilpin has expressed 

 the opinion that on the coast of Nova Scotia they do not retreat so far from the shore in winter as 

 the Cod, but this does not appear to be true in Massachusetts Bay. 



Storer, in 1839, made the assertion, which was repeated in 1867, in another edition of the 

 " History of the Fishes of Massachusetts," that in Massachusetts Bay in the warm season about 

 twelve hundredweight of Haddock are taken to each hundredweight of Codfish, and in the wiater 

 about twelve hundredweight of Cod to each hundredweight of Haddock; but since the haddock 

 fishery is of longer duration, the proportion throughout the year averages about three Haddock to 

 one Cod. They abound in Massachusetts Bay throughout the summer, and it is at this season also 

 that they are taken in the greatest abundance on the off-shore banks in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. 



There is a strange absence of information concerning their movements on the European coast. 

 On the coast of East Friesland the haddock fishery is peimitted by law from March to the begin- 



