tail," "yellow-tailed shad," and "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 different fish, Bairdiella punctata (Linn.) Gill.

28. 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 (Mugil lineatus). In the last century it was used for the Albula conorhynchus.

The conflict of names among the American representatives of the herring family.

29. The representatives of the herring family most abundant in the waters of Great Britain are three-the shad (Alosa finta), the alewife (Alosa vulgaris), and the herring (Clupea harengus). Their names were at an early date appropriated for representatives of the same family on our own coast. The name "shad" is, from Maine to Florida, yielded by common consent to our Alosa sapidissima, which, in many particulars, resembles its namesake, though they "be bigger than the English Shaddes and fatter," as an early writer declares.t

In the Southern States this fish is sometimes called "white-shad," to distinguish it from the Dorosoma Cepedianum, there known as the "mud-shad" or "gizzard-shad." On the coast of New England, the mattowocca or tailor-herring (Pomolobus mediocris) is sometimes called the "hickory-shad," and also the "sea-shad," under which name it is often confounded with the true shad, which is known from recent investigations to be frequently taken far out at sea in company with mackerel, alewives, and menhaden. In the Bermudas, there being no large clupeoid fish, the same name has been for centuries applied to two species which somewhat resemble it externally-Eucinostomus gula and Eucinostomus Lefroyi, Goode.

The "herring," or "English herring," of New England north of Cape Cod is identical with that of Great Britain, but at certain points in Southern New England, such as New Bedford, this name is transferred to Pomolobus pseudoharengus, and on the Hudson River the usage is general, though the species is occasionally called the alewife. South of the Hudson the name "herring" is universally used in connection with this species of Pomolobus, and the allied Pomolobus mediocris or "mattowocca," which is known as the "tailor-herring" or sometimes, as in the Saint John's River and about Cape Cod, as the "hickory-shad." In the great lakes the name " herring" is also represented, being applied to one of the whitefish family, the lake-herring (Argyrosomus clupeiformis).

To Pomolobus pseudoharengus the name "alewife" is commonly ap * See Garden, in Correspondence of Linnæus, p. 335.

+ New England's Prospect. By William Wood. London, 1634.

applied in New England, and even, occasionally, as mentioned above, in New York. South of New York it is used for Brevoortia tyrannus only. The name is corrupted into "old-wife" and "ell-wife," "wife," and on the Connecticut River appears under the guise of "ell-whop." At Maurice River the Brevoortia is called "old-wife chebog," "chebog" being probably of Indian origin. Thomas Morton, writing in 1632 of the fishes of Virginia, gives the names "shadd" and "allize" as in use among the colonists at that time. The original deriyation of the word "alewife" is somewhat obscure, though it may probably have originated in Alausa, the name applied by Ausonius to the European shads in his celebrated poem on the Moselle River—

The transition through the French "alose," the English "allis," "allice," or "alize," is not difficult, and when we find these names together with "alewife" applied indiscriminately to the same fish, it is, to say the least, suggestive. Such an etymology is at least more satisfactory than that of Josselyn, so often quoted: "The Alewife is like a Herrin, but has a bigger bellie; therefore called an Alewife."+

6. ZOOLOGICAL NAMES.

Latrobe's description of Clupea tyrannus.

30. Our species was first described by Mr. B. H. Latrobe, in a communication to the American Philosophical Society in 1802,‡ under the name Clupea tyrannus. Although this article, and the name therein proposed, have long since been lost sight of, there can be little doubt that they refer to the menhaden, and that the laws of priority demand that the species shall henceforth be known as Brevoortia tyrannus. The fishes of the Chesapeake and its tributaries have, until within the past three years, been very little studied, and the habits of the menhaden in those waters. are so different that it is not strange for Northern ichthyologists to have made mistaken identifications of Latrobe's specific name.§ In fact, it was supposed, not many years since, that the southern limit of the menhaden was north of the Capes of Delaware, while its habit of ascend

* New English Canaan; or New Canaan; containing an abstract of New England. Force's Hist. Tracts, vol. ii, Tract 5.

+ An Account of two voyages to New England, a Description of the country, natives, and creatures. By John Josselyn, Gent. 1675. Col. Mas. Hist. Soc., 3d series, III. 1833.

A Drawing and Description of the Clupea Tyrannus and Oniscus prægustator. By Benjamin Henry Latrobe, F. A. P. S. <Transactions of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge. Vol. V, 1802, p. 77. Dr. Dekay, misled by the name "alewife," which he supposed to be applied to the same species at the north as in southern waters, applied Latrobe's name to the northern "alewife," calling it Alosa tyrannus, a usage which was concurred in by Storer and by Cuvier and Valenciennes. The same name was referred to the shad by Professor Gill in some of his earlier writings.

ing the rivers of the South and the presence of the peculiar parasite were quite unknown.

Latrobe's description is reproduced in Appendix D, and the reader may decide the question for himself. It is believed that the following circumstances clearly indicate the meaning of its author:

(1.) The figure, while undeniably bad, resembles the menhaden very closely, and manifestly cannot be intended to represent any allied species. The contour, were the missing dorsal fin supplied, is similar 1 to that of the menhaden, the black spot upon the scapular region is constant in the menhaden only, though a similar one is occasionally seen upon the shad and the alewife. While the figure resembles somewhat the menhaden, it does not resemble the allied species.

(2.) The name "bay alewife" is still applied to the menhaden in this region. This is a strong argument, for, although seventy-five years have passed since Latrobe wrote, the persistence of popular names is very remarkable, as I have elsewhere pointed out.* Moreover, Latrobe was also acquainted with a "herring" and a "shad." These being eliminated, there is no fish but the menhaden to which the description in question can refer.

(3.) The habits of the alewife as described by Latrobe are essentially the same as those of the menhaden in the present day. As has been remarked, it is only recently that the river-ascending habits of the species have been understood, and the statement that the alewife began to ascend the Potomac in March, which was two months earlier than the menhaden was known to strike our coast, formerly was thought to throw the identity of the two out of question.

(4.) The presence of the crustacean parasite is the strongest argument of all. While this is found in the mouths of a large percentage of the southern menhaden, it has never once been found attached to any other species, although careful search has been made by several persons. As has been remarked, the northern menhaden are free from this parasite, and this is still another reason for the failure to identify.

31. The next mention of this species was by Professor Mitchill, under the name Clupea menhaden. By this specific name it has been known ever since, and it is to be regretted that it is necessary to replace by another a name so appropriate and of such long standing.

Descriptions of later dates.

32. In 1818, the eccentric Rafinesque redescribed the species as Clupea neglecta, the specific name being chosen because he supposed the species to have been neglected by Dr. Mitchill in his comprehensive catalogue of the fishes of New York.

* Catalogue of the Fishes of the Bermudas, 1876, p. 15.

+ The fishes of New York described and arranged. <Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York, Vol. I, 1815, p. 453.

American Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, 1818, p. 206.

33. In Belknap's History of New Hampshire, this species is mentioned under the name "Clupea dura lævi mystax (hardhead)."* Since no description is given, this name can have no significance.

34. Mitchill's "New York Shadine" (Clupea sadina) † appears to be identical with Brevoortia tyrannus, as is indicated by the smutty opercular spot, the wide and toothless mouth, and protruding gill apparatus. The deciduous character of the scales may have been due to poor preservation of the type specimen.

Gronow, in 1763, described the species under the name Clupea Carolinensis, but his manuscript was not published until 1854, and his name. must yield precedence to those which are really much more recent.

The Gulf Menhaden.

35. A second North American species of menhaden has recently been. discovered. A description will be given in a subsequent paragraph (42). This species has been reported only from the Gulf of Mexico. The name chosen for it has reference to the presence of a parasite which has already been mentioned, and which was described by Latrobe as the Oniscus prægustator. This parasite is common to both Brevoortia tyrannus and Brevoortia patronus, the gulf form; the specific name of the latter has been selected to carry out the quaint conceit of Latrobe, who fancied that the menhaden resembled a Roman ruler in having a "taster" who first tested every dish to prove its harmlessness.

The Menhaden of Brazil.

36. The species described, from Brazil, by Agassiz and Spix, under thename Clupanodon aureus§ does not appear to be distinctly separated. from Brevoortia tyrannus. No diagnostic characters can be detected in the descriptions of either Agassiz or Günther; that is to say, characters. which do not disappear upon the study of a large series of specimens.. Agassiz's specimens, collected probably at Bahia, and in 1829 preserved in alcohol in the Munich Museum, were eight inches long. He himself seems to have had an inkling of their identity with the North American. species, from the fact that he cites, doubtfully, as a synonym, Mitchill's. Clupea menada. The difference in spelling this specific name is doubtless an attempt to put in Latin form the Indian name used by Mitchill.. Two specimens from Sambaia, Brazil, and one from Rio Janeiro, collected by the Thayer expedition, agree closely with the figure in Spix's.

Belknap's History of New Hampshire, 2d ed., 1813, III, p. 133.

t Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc., N. Y., 1814, pp. 457, 458.

Catalogue of Fish, collected and described by Lawrence Theodore Gronow, now in. the British Museum. Published by order of the Trustees, London, 1854, pp. 140.

§ Selecta | Genera et Species | Piscum quos in Itinere per Brasiliam | Annis MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX | # # collegit, et pingendos curavit | Dr. J. B. de

Spix, |
Agassiz,

*

| digessit, descripsit, et observationis anatomicis illustravit | Dr. L.

* | Monachii, | Typis C. Wolf | = | 1829, p. 52.

work. The species is not well separated, and is at best but a geographical race of Brevoortia tyrannus.

Darwin's Menhaden.

37. The Alosa pectinata described by Jenyns,* from specimens collected by Charles Darwin at Bahia Blanca, appears to be a well-defined species, distinguished chiefly by the lesser number of transverse rows of scales. In the Natural Museum is a specimen (No. 1709) collected by Captain Page, U. S. N., in the expedition of the United States steamer "Waterwitch" to Paraguay. The extremely pectinate scale, given in the figure of Alosa pectinata, and upon which so much stress is laid by Mr. Jenyns, is taken from one of the differentiated rows immediately in front of the dorsal fin, which are alike pectinate in all species of the genus. Two specimens belonging to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, collected in the Rio Grande, agree thoroughly with Mr. Jenyns' description and with the Paraguay specimens already referred to.

Generic relations.

38. Dr. Storer first referred the species to the genus Alosa, where it stood until 1861, when Professor Gill proposed for it a new genus, which he named Brevoortia, in honor of the Hon. J. Carson Brevoort, of New York City. This genus is characterized by peculiarities of structure in scales, gills, gill-rakers, and alimentary canal.

A revision of the American species.

39. The type of the genus Brevoortia of Gill is the species described in 1802 by Latrobe under the name Clupea tyrannus, and later by Mitchill under the name Clupea menhaden. As has already been indicated (Proceedings U. S. National Museum, vol. 1, p. 5), the former name has the prior claim to adoption, and the species must be called Brevoortia tyrannus. Of this species there appear to be two geographical races or subspecies. One of these is the typical form of the Atlantic coast of the United States, the other a closely allied form from the coast of Brazil, already described by Spix under the name of Clupanodon aureus. For the species the name of Latrobe should be retained, and the two subspe cies may be distinguished as Brevoortia tyrannus, menhaden and Brevoortia tyrannus, aurea: a third subspecies is temporarily adopted to include some aberrant forms from Noank, Conn., for which the name Brevoortia tyrannus brevicaudata is proposed. On the coast of Patagonia and Paraguay occurs a well marked species, described by Jenyns under the name of Alosa pectinata. This species is readily distinguished by its larger scales, which are arranged in 18 to 20 lateral rows, instead of 25 to 27, as in B. tyrannus. The generic relations of this species were recognized many years ago by Professor Gill, and its name should stand as Brevoortia pectinata, (Jeuyns) Gill.

*The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle, &c. London, 1842., p. 135, pl. xxv.

Part IV. Fish.