1878.] A Study of the Popular Names of the Menhaden. ` 739 
schools, swimming at the surface in much the same manner as 
our Lrevoortia, and which is known to the Hollanders as the 
Marsbanker} 
In the Museum Ichthyologicum of Gronow, published in 1754, 
the name JZarsbanker is used in speaking of a scombroid fish, 
frequently taken with the herring, probably the same referred to 
above.? 
The name is variously spelled “ moss-bunker,” “ moss-bonker,” 
“mass-banker,” ‘mouse-bunker,’ “ marsh-bunker,” “ marsh- 
banker,” and “ morse-bonker,”’ and is also familiarly shortened 
into “ bunker,” a name in common use at the eastern end of Long 
Island. 
The name “alewife” was given by the Virginia colonists to 
this species from its resemblance to the allied species known by 
that name in England. This name is preoccupied by the Pomolo- 
bus pseudoharengus, and should never be applied to Brevoortia. 
The presence of a parasitic crustacean (Cymothoa pregustator) 
in the mouth of Brevoortia, when found’ in southern waters, 
explains the name “ bug-fish ” prevalent in Delaware and Chesa- 
; peake bays, the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, and the 
: inlets of North Carolina, with its local variations of “ bug-head.” 
; and ‘‘ buggy-head.” “ Yellow-tail,” “ yellow-tailed shad,” and ' 
l “ green-tail” refer to the yellowish-green tint of the caudal fin, 
observed only in Southern specimens. The former of these 
names has led to some confusion among our correspondents, the 
same name being applied in Georgia and Florida to a very differ- 
“ent fish, Bairdiella punctata (Linn.) Gill. 
An allusion to the oily nature of the flesh is found in “ fat- 
back,” a name in general use in the Southern States. This name 
is sometimes applied in Northampton county, Virginia, to the 
mullet (Mugi? lineatus). In the last century it was used for the 
Albula vulpes. 
SRN eh RPE TO ee 
ge as 
1 See Schlegel, Die Dieren van Nederland, Visschen, p. 4. 
280, Scomber linea ` terali aculeata, pinna ani ea triginta, Arted. gen. 
25, n. 3, Synon. 
Scomber linea peder curva, tabellis Belgis Maraban ae in. 
osseis loricata, Gronov. act. ups. 1742, p. Mari Septentrionale cum Clupeis ety: 
, ibique defer. Trachurus 4 4, descriptis capitur 
wo 
T ws 
a 
ma) 
— 
epigr. p. 74, Bellon. Agua p. 180, Dal ek 
Hist. of Harw., p. 131, n. 5. op. cit. p. 34. 
3 Captain — states in the aege of the Boston Society of Natural His- _ 
tory, x, 1865, p. 67, that the half-grown menhaden are called “ bug-fish” bythe 
i n rgin a negroes, because they be elieve them to have eg produced from sae - 
_ Since they neve: r find spawn i in thom ther Bee 
VOL. XIL—NO. XL 50 
