HI 
1878.] A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. 735 
A STUDY OF THE POPULAR NAMES OF THE MEN- 
BY PROFESSOR G. BROWN GOODE. 
HE menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe) Goode, has at 
least thirty distinct popular names, most of them limited in 
application within narrow geographical boundaries. To this circum- 
stance may be attributed the prevailing ignorance regarding its 
habits and migrations, which has perhaps prevented the more 
extensive utilization of this fish, particularly in the Southern 
States. It accounts for the extraordinary blunder of the com- 
pilers of the fishery statistics of the census of the United States 
for 1870, in which the oils produced from the white-fish of the 
great lakes (Coregonus albus) and the white-fish of Connecticut are 
classed as identical, a blunder which is followed by a number of 
others of the same character and quite as certain to mislead. The 
discrepancy of local names also enables us to understand how the 
extensive manufacturing interests and fisheries connected with 
this fish have gradually sprung up, little noticed save by those 
directly interested in the business. 
In Maine and Massachusetts the name “ pogy” is almost uni- 
versally in use, though in the vicinity of Cape Ann it is partially 
replaced by “ hard-head” and “ hard-head shad.” The name 
“menhaden” is exclusively applied in Southern Massachusetts, 
the Vineyard sound, Buzzard’s bay and Narragansett bay where 
it appears to have originated. From the eastern boundary of 
Connecticut to the mouth of the Connecticut river the name 
“ bony-fish” predominates, while in the western part of the State 
the species is usually known as the “ white-fish.” In the waters 
of New York the usage of two centuries is in favor of “ moss- 
bunker,” a name which also holds throughout New Jersey. In 
Delaware bay, the Potomac, and Chesapeake bay other variations 
are found in “ alewife ” and “ greentail.” Virginia gives us “ bug- — 
fish ” in its various forms, while in North Carolina we first meet 
the name of “ fat-back,” which is more or less prevalent as far 
south as the St. John’s river, Florida. In all the Southern States, 
especially in the vicinity of Beaufort, N. C., the names “ yellow- 
tail” and “ yellow-tailed shad ” are occasionally heard. Iam in- 
formed that in the Indian river, Florida, the fish is occasionally 
called the “shiner ” and the “ herring.” 
