Haddock
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Haddock. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a fish of the same genus with the cod, and much resembling it in general appearthere being three dorsals and two anals. ance. The number of fins are the same, The haddock, like the cod, has a barbule dock is brown on the back, silvery on the at the point of the lower jaw. The hadbelly; the lateral line is black, and there is a black spot behind each of the pectorals, these spots sometimes extending legend ascribes these spots to the finger so as to meet on the back. An ancient and thumb of St. Peter, and states the which he took the tribute money. The haddock to be the fish from the mouth of haddock is not found in the Mediterranean. though plentiful in the N. parts of the Nor does it enter the Baltic, Atlantic Ocean, both on the European and the American coasts. On the British coasts it is abundant almost everywhere. Those of Dublin Bay are remarkable for trawl nets and lines. In March and their large size. It is taken both by April the haddock is out of season; in October, November, December, and Jan- FINNAN. uary it is in finest condition. See Jersey, in Camden co. It is on the West
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a food fish related to the cod. Ordinary haddocks weigh two pounds and upward to ten. Great shoals are found in the North Atlantic. Haddocks are a favorite fresh fish in the markets of the large cities. Boston is well supplied from Massachusetts Bay. The smoked haddocks of northern Scotland are the "Finnan Haddies" of commerce. See Cod
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's called the haddock "a fish of the same genus with the cod" in 1921; taxonomists have since moved it out of Gadus into a genus of its own, Melanogrammus, of which it is the only member. The bigger change is in the fishery: the abundant shoals Aiton's described in 1910 were hammered by distant-water factory trawlers, and the Georges Bank haddock stock collapsed in the mid-1960s, prompting quota management under the US Magnuson Act of 1976 and, later, rebuilding plans that brought New England landings back. What has not changed is the fish itself — the black "St Peter's thumbprint" behind the pectoral fin, the North Atlantic range that still excludes the Mediterranean and Baltic, and the smoked Finnan haddie of northeast Scotland, which is now a protected regional name in Britain.
Written for this edition, 2026.