NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 65 



This species is readily distinguished by its abbreviated caudal peduncle and 

 the consequent extension of the anal fin backwards nearly to its end. The 

 back is also considerably more gibbous and decurved than that of any con- 

 gener. 



4564. North Grand River, Livingston Co., Mo. Dr. Hoy. 



POMOXTS INTERMEDIUS Gill. 



D. VI. 15. A. VI. 17. 

 6 

 Scales (1231) 45 . 

 14 

 This species distinguished by its comparatively longer caudal peduncle and 

 the height of the body, as well as by the smaller size of the scales. 



POMOXTS STOREKIUS Gill. 



?Pomoxis annularis Raf. f Ag. 



Cichla storeria Kirtland, MSS. 



Centrarchus hexacanthus Cuv. et Val., fide Storer (nee Cuv. et Val.) 



Pomoxis nitidus Girard. 



Centrarchus nitidus Giinther. 



D. VI. 15. A. VI. 17. P. 15. 



6 



Scales (1430) 43 . 

 14 



The Pomoxys storerius is remarkable among all its known congeners on ac- 

 count of the slender caudal peduncle. 



The species has been quite unfortunate in its nomenclature. It is possible 

 that it is the species described and figured (!) by Rafinesque, but it would be 

 an act of injustice to any other naturalist to suppose that his figure could so 

 disagree with nature as does that of Rafinesque with the species in question. 

 Agassiz has adopted Rafinesque's name for a species found in the Tennessee 

 River,* and, while he has remarked that it does not have the caudal ring 

 mentioned by that author, has not alluded to any other disagreement with 

 the fish of Rafinesque ; the normal inaccuracy of that man is, however, so 

 well known, that Agassiz has doubtless considered it superfluous to allude to 

 any such discrepancies, and, consequently nothing may be predicated from 

 his silence on that subject. 



The species was first intelligibly noticed by Dr. Kirtland ; in the "Report 

 on the Zoology of Ohio," p. 191, he introduced it under the name Cichla Sto- 

 rsrin. Being subsequently informed by Dr. Storer " that Cuvier had pre- 

 viously described it in the third volume of his " Histoire Naturelle des Pois- 

 sons," from specimens taken by Lesueur in the river Wabash," he referred 

 it to the latter species, called Centrarchus hexacanthus Val. The fishes of 

 Kirtland and the French naturalists, not only belong to different species, but 

 even to different genera. The name Cichla Storeria must therefore be ac- 

 cepted as the specific appellation of the species described by Kirtland, if Ra- 

 finesque's is deemed unworthy of adoption. 



Subsequently, the species was described and figured by Girard under the 

 new name of Pomoxis nitida, while the name of Kirtland was retained as a 

 synonym of the Centrarchus hexacanthus, which was erroneously called Pomoxis 

 sparoides, and the name of Rafinesque was preserved for a third nominal 

 species. 



* Agaspiz remarks, that the species of the Tennessee Kirer '-agrees fully with the description 

 given hy Kafint-wjiu- of his Pomoxis annularis, with the sole exception of a golden ring at the base 

 of the tail, which may be faded io the specimens sent by Dr. Newman from Huntsville ;" but this i 

 agreement surely can scarcely extend to the figure, which remains unnoticed bv Agassiz. 



1865.] 5 



