Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/403

 ii s. iv. NOV. ii, MIL.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

397

the United States, and highly esteemed as a food-fish. It is a stout and very deep-bodied fish, with a steep frontal profile, of a grayish colour with about eight vertical dark bands, and the fins mostly dark. It attains a length of 30 inches, though usually found of a smaller size.

"3. A Scisenoid fish of the fresh waters of the United States, Haplodinotus grunniens, also called drum, croaker, and thunder-pumper."

Nares (ed. 1859, p. 767) gives : " Sargon, or Sargus. A fish said by Schneider, on JBlian, to be the Sparus of Linnaeus, in English, therefore, the gilt-head."

Possibly, therefore, the sheephead may be a Sparus, such as the Sparus dentatus or toothed gilt-head ; the ordinary gilt-head liaving been suggested as the equivalent for the gollins. The sargus and its love for goats has been dwelt on by Du Bartas and his translator Sylvester.

Michaelmas Quarter.

Coal fish. Oadus carbonarius, is still quoted in the Billingsgate and Grimsby Market reports.

White and pouting hake are probably the whiting, Oadus merlangus, and the whiting pout, Gadus barbatus.

Tuske, or torske, is Gadus callarias. Rocket =Fr. rouget, or red mullet, Mullus foarbatus.

Smeare dabs= Pleuronectes microcephalus. Chare = char, the Windermere fish, Salmo alpinus.

Homlyn=the homelyn ray, also called the home, sand, or spotty ray, Raia maculata. Kinson, a corruption of kingstone, other- wise the angel fish, monkfish, or shark ray, .Squatina angelus.

Scate maides and thornback maides are the females of these fishes.

Christmas Quarter.

Gollin. I am somewhat uncertain as to what this means ; but it may be a corrup- tion of "golden," in which case it would seem to indicate the golden-maid or -wrasse, also known as the gilt-head, rather than the golden carp or goldfish, although these are edible and said to be quite good.

Crouch = the crucian, known as the 'Crouger in Warwickshire, the Gibele carp, or Cyprinus carassius. This fish is known as carouche in Berlin, and on the Thames as the 'German carp. ..

Bearbet = the burbot, Gadus lota. Hollebet = the hollibut or halibut, Pleuro- nectes hippoglossus.

Dose, mentioned by MR. SCHLOESSEB, would appear to be intended for the dace given by Mrs. Glasse : possibly dose is a misprint.

I do not feel at all sure that Mrs. Glasse' s list is original, but I cannot find it in several of the earlier cookery books that I have consulted for this especial purpose.

Curiously enough, MB. SCHLOESSEB in his ' Greedy Book,' whilst pointing out (p. 84) that Dr. Kitchiner wrongly dates the first edition of " Mrs. Glasse " as 1757, falls into a similar error himself on p. 86, where he gives the date as 1745. The correct date is 1747. JOHN HODGKIN.

Guardfish should certainly not be classed as obsolete. It is one of the best-known fishes in Australian waters, and the word is in colloquial use in Melbourne, Sydney, and other centres. Boys abbreviate it into " gardy." Prof. Morris ('Austral-English,' p. 158) seems to think that " garfish " is the more correct form, while stating that some are of opinion that " guardfish " was the original spelling. The Professor favours the view that the word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon gar spear, dart, javelin in allusion to the long spear-like projection of the jaws of this fish. J. F. HOGAN.

Royal Colonial Institute,

Northumberland Avenue.

Tusk. Dr. J. Jacobsen (University of Copenhagen), in his ' Dialect and Place- Names of Shetland ' (1897), states :

The cod is in Norway and Denmark called torsk, while the tusk (torsk) is called brosma, brosme, which name is still used in Shetland, pronounced brismik."

The tusk is an edible sea fish, caught off the coasts of the Shetland Isles. When full grown it is smaller than the full-sized cod, but its flesh is firmer and more palatable. Its dorsal fins are well developed, its head and body are plump, and the skin is darker in colour than that of the ling. When salted and dried, its flesh is firmer and more glutinous than the cod's.

THOS. F. MANSON.

Will MB. SCHLOESSEB allow me to supple- ment his question ? Formerly we had 150 sail of large fishing smacks which belonged to this town now, alas ! all gone away. They often brought in a fish which when stuffed and baked was extremely good ; it was called locally " latchet " : it had a large head out of all proportion to its body. I do not hear of it to-day.

W. W. GLENNY.

Barking, Essex.

[MR. R. V. GOWER, MR. T. JONES, MR. A. E. STEEL, and MR. J. WILLCOCK, are thanked for replies.]