BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 257 
FISHERMEN’S VERNACULAR. 
Characteristics of fishes : “ Slap ” of menhaden, “ raining or patter- 
ing” of herring; “ Chug” of mackerel. Alewives, and menhaden settle 
when alarmed; mackerel dart away; “mulling” of herring and men- 
haden means gradual settling. 
A small bunch of fish is a “ small pod ”; a “ dory pod ” contains about 
enough fish to fill a dory. A “red school” is one which lies under a 
mass of red entomostraca, etc., forming its food. “Butts,” the heads 
of a school, or of fish. “ Bed birds ” or “ sea geese ” are red phalaropes. 
Tails schooling and heads settled means that the advance fish have been 
alarmed and sunk while the rear end of the school is still schooling. 
“Swinging” of a school is cart-wheeling. “Soaking to windward” is 
moving slowly against the wind. 
Speaking of an unsuccessful set of the seine for a school of fish a 
captain said, “ I set at it but didn’t stop nothin’.” 
Another expression of a captain who saw a chronometer on the 
Grampus for the first time was, “I never was shipmates with a chro- 
nometer before.” 
Another captain, who thrust a board with all his strength to a drown- 
ing man, said, “I pooned a board at him.” 
CETACEANS. 
The cruise was remarkable for the scarcity of cetaceans. Puffing- 
pigs were seen at Fortress Monroe, Delaware Bay, and near Montauk. 
A few blackfish were seen on May 1. I observed among them what 
appeared to be an Orca , but they were too far off to be identified. 
On the 11th of May a moderately large- sized school of porpoises was 
seen coming from the southward in about north latitude 38° IP, west 
longitude 74° 23', 
On the evening of May 14 a school of about thirty Delphinus was 
alongside, and near night a few more were seen. This was in north lat- 
itude 38° 03', west longitude 74° 12'. 
On May 15 Captain Fernald caught a Delphinus containing a foetus 22 
or 23 inches long, which was removed alive and seemed almost viable. 
Early in the morning of May 24 a school of porpoises was seen off 
the south side of Long Island. 
On May 24 also a small whale was reported by one of the men of the 
Grampus near Montauk. 
May 27, 40 miles southeast i east from Block Island, Captain Harty 
reported whales plentiful. 
BIRDS. 
We were struck by the remarkable scarcity of birds during our en- 
tire cruise from Fortress Monroe to Cape Cod. The species which are 
usually recognized as the associates of the mackerel were generally 
Buff. U. S. F. C., 87—17 
