304 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



here only in a rudimentary state, but the position of this orifice is the 

 same as in the preceding species, and this fact excludes, a priori, the 

 idea of an approach to the C. cognatus of Richardson. Farther, 

 our species has only four rays in the ventrals and twelve in the 

 anal. 



The ground is of a yellow olive color with black spots. The 

 lower side of the head and body and the lower half of the sides are 

 yellowish white. The fins have the color of the region of the body 

 to which they correspond. The ventrals and anal are of one color, 

 the others are barred or simply spotted in transverse rows. 



This species is not without some analogy to that of Pennsyl- 

 vania. The comparison which I have been enabled to make with it 

 by means of specimens, for which I am under obligation to Professor 

 Baird, has shown me differences which I consider as specific. 



Found in various localities along the eastern shores of Lake 

 Superior. Prof. James Hall has also sent me specimens collected 

 by him on the southern shores of the same lake. 



BOLEOSOMA, Dekay. 



This genus has been instituted by Dr. Dekay for a small fresh- 

 water fish of the State of New York. He placed it in the family of 

 Percoids, whence we withdraw it, to associate it to the Etheosto- 

 mata, which should constitute a distinct group among the Cottoids, 

 and the Gasterostei another near them. The zoological characters 

 of this genus may be formulated in the following manner : The form 

 of the body is that of a dart ; the head is very short, rounded like an 

 arc of a circle, below which the mouth, generally small and slightly 

 protractile, opens horizontally ; the upper jaw sloping over the lower. 

 The neck and the sides of the skull compressed. The opercular 

 apparatus and the cheeks covered with scales. 



The species known to me are : the Boleosoma tessellatum Dekay, 

 the B. maculatum of Lake Superior, the Etheostoma Olmstedi of 

 Pennsylvania and the Northern States, which belongs to this genus 

 and not to Etheostoma proper, and a species from South Carolina 

 which I have called Boleosoma tenue. 



