1878.] A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. 737 
“In the northern and eastern parts of New England the re- 
voortia is commonly called Pauhagen, and probably in some locali- 
ties ‘poghaden’ (as you write it and which is nearer the Indian 
original), though I have not heard it so pronounced by eastern 
fishermen. This name in the eastern dialects has precisely the 
same meaning as ‘menhaden’ (or rather munnawhatteatig in 
Southern New England). The Abnaki {ż. e., coast of Maine) name 
was Pookagan as Rasles wrote it, and the verb from which it is 
derived he translated by ‘on engraisse la terre.’ ” 
According to Mr. J. V. C. Smith, the older fishermen of North- 
ern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine called the fish by 
the Indian name “ pauhagen,” and I myself have heard it called 
“poghaden” by old fishermen about Cape Cod. The modern 
name may easily have been derived from this by dropping the 
final syllable. At the present day this name is almost univer- 
sally in use among the fishermen north of Cape Cod, though it is 
occasionally varied by “ poggie” and “ porgy.” The use of the 
latter name should be carefully avoided: the same name, a cor- 
ruption of the Indian “ scuppaug,’ being commonly applied 
to another fish, the “scuppaug” or “scup” (Stenxotomus 
argyrops)4 As may be supposed, the name of Narragansett 
origin is most exclusively used in Southern Massachusetts and 
on the shores of Narragansett bay, the former home of that tribe 
of Indians. In its present form it first appeared in print in 1792, 
in the New York Agricultural Transactions, in an article by the 
Hon. Ezra L’ Hommedieu. 
“ Hard-head ” and “ bony-fish ” explain themselves, both refer- 
ring to the same peculiarity of structure. The former name was 
first used about 1813 by Belknap in his History of New Hamp- 
shire; the latter, as well as “ white-fish,” by President Dwight in 
his Travels in New England. 
The application of ‘white-fish” is also sufficiently evident, 
although this name is not a distinctive one, being applied toa 
large group of North American fresh-water fishes, the Coregonide, 
and in certain localities to the blue-fish (Pomatomous saltatrix). 
In England the term “ white fish” is used to designate cod, had- 
1 This probably misled De Kay, who stated that the menhaden were known at the 
eastern end of Long Island as “skippaugs.’’ He also remarked that “ pauhagen” 
(pronounced Pauhaugen) was the Narragansett epithet, while “ menhaden" was 
that applied by the Manhattan Indians, 
