738 A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden, [November, 
dock, hake, ling, pollock, soles, turbot, plaice, halibut, and 
whiting. 
“ Mossbunker ” is a relic of the days of the Dutch colony at 
New Amsterdam, and the name is still lovingly retained by the 
inhabitants of Manhattan island. It was in use as early as 1661, 
as we learn from an allusion in Jacob Steendam’s poem in 
“ Praise of New Netherland” (t Louf van Niew Nederland)? 
Allusion has already been made in the letter of Prof. Trumbull, 
to the great schools of “ marsbanckers” seen by Dankers and 
Sluyter on their visit to New York, in 1679, and every one 
remembers the reference to this fish in Irving’s “ Knickerbocker,” 
in connection with the death of the renowned trumpeter, Antony 
Van Corlear, where the name first appears crystallized in its 
present form.” 
The derivation of this name may be easily traced, it having 
evidently been transferred by the Dutch colonists from the scad 
or horse-mackerel, Caranx trachurus (Linn.) Lacepede,a fish which 
annually visits the shores of Northern Europe in immense 
1 This poem, cited by Prof. Trumbull in the Report of the Commission of Fish 
and Fisheries for 1871-72, p. 168, was printed, with an English translation, by 
Hon. Henry C. Murphy, for ae Bradford Club of New York (Anthology of New 
Netherland: Bradford Club Series, No. 4, so Pp: 52, 45). 
The alaien to the Mossbunker is as follow 
“ Swart-vis, en Roch, en Haring, en Makreel 
Schelvis, Masbank, en Voren die (se veel) 
Tot walgins toe, de a ’vuld: en heel 
Min ward ge- 
“ The black and rock fish, herring, mackerel, . 
The haddock, mossbanker, and roach, which fill 
The nets to loathing ; soa so many, a 
Cannot be eaten. 
2 «It was a dark and stormy night when the good Antony arrived at the creek. 
(sagely aoni ii Haerlem river) which separates the island of Mannahatta from 
the main land. ` The wind was high, the elements in an uproar, and no Charon 
could be found to ferry the adventurous sounder of brass across the water. For a 
__ short time he vapored like an impatient ghost upon the brink and then, bethinking 
_ himself of the urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, swore 
most valorously that he would swim across in y of the devil (Spyt den Duyvel), 
-anc daringly plunged into the chas An old Dutch eesti a ie 
his veracity, and who had a EE oS the fact, related to * 
that he saw the duyvel, in the shape of a huge moss-bonker, seize on seat Antony 
| beneath the waves, * Nobody ever aeomp to 
Diedrich | Knickerbocker, . New York, 1309. 
