TEE CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 13 



Ostracion, he proposed the name Acanthostracion, for the species with 

 horns, tricornis being the type. But Acanthostracion has not been 

 usually adopted except as the name of a section under Lactophrys. The 

 three-angled American species are usually set apart from the four- 

 angled species of Asia, and our cuckold is called Lactophrys tricornis. 

 But it may be with perfect correctness called Ostracion tricorne in the 

 spirit called conservative. Or with the radical systematists we may 

 accept the finer definition and again correctly call it Acanthostracion 

 tricorne. But to call it quadricornis, or listeri, or maculatus, with any 

 generic name, whatever, would be to violate the law of priority. 



By trinomial nomenclature we mean the use of a second, subordi- 

 nate specific name to designate a geograpliic subspecies, variety or other 

 intergrading race. Thus Salmo clarhi virginalis indicates the variety 

 of Clark 's trout, or the cut-throat trout, found in the lakes and streams 

 of the Great Basin of Utah, as distinguished from the genuine Salmo 

 clarkii of the Columbia. 



Trinomials are not much used among fishes, as we are not yet able 

 to give most of these local forms correct and adequate definitions such 

 as is awarded to similar variations among birds and mammals. Some 

 of these forms will turn out to be real species, while others represent 

 slight individual variations. It will take long study of much material 

 to define these two sorts of subspecies and to separate one from the 

 other. It is easier to preserve and to study birds than fishes and more 

 people are engaged in it. For this reason the fine discrimination of 

 variant forms has been possible much earlier in ornithology than in 

 ichthyology. 



