522 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Family skrranidae ' 



Sea Basses 

 Genus roccus Mitchill 

 Base of tongue with one or two patches of teeth; anal spines 

 graduated; dorsal fins entirely separate; anal rays III, 11 or 12; 

 supraoccipital crest scarcely widened above; lower jaw project- 

 ing. Vertebrae 12+13=25. Otherwise as in M o r o n e , the 

 body more elongate, the scales smoother, and the fins more 

 slender than in M o r o n e . Species all American, valued as 

 food fishes. In both Roccus and M o r o n e , the antrorse 

 preopercular spines (characteristic of the European genus or 

 subgenus Dicentrarchus) are wanting. 



259 Roccus chrysops (Rafinesque) 

 WMte Bass 



i 



Perca chrysops Rafinesque, Ichthyol. Ohien. 22, 1S20. 



Labrax alUckis De Kay, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 13, pi. 51, fig. 165, 1842, 



Bufealo. 

 Labrax notatus Richardson, Fauna Bor.-Amer. Ill, 8, 1836; Gunther, Cat. 



Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 67, 1859. 

 Roccus chrysops Gill, Rept. Capt. Simpson's Surv. Great Basin Utah, 391, 



pi. 1, fig. 1-7, 1876; Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, TJ. S. Nat. Mus. 529, 



1883; Bean, Fishes Penna. 132, pi. 34, fig. 71, 1893; Bull. Am. Mus. 



Nat. Hist. IX, 365, 1897; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 1132, 1896, pi. CLXXX, fig. 477, 1900; Eugene Smith, Proc. Linn. 



See. N. Y. 1897, 38, 1898. 



The white bass has the body oblong, elevated and compressed; 

 its depth contained two and one half times in the total length 

 without caudal, the length of the head about three and one 

 third times in this length; head subconical, depressed over eye; 

 mouth moderate, the maxillary reaching to below middle of eye; 

 length of eye almost equal to length of snout; villiform teeth in 

 bands on jaws, palatines, vomer and tongue; the dorsal outline 

 is much curved, the fins well separated. 



D. IX, 1, 14; A. 111,11 to 12. Scales 8-60-13. General color 

 silvery, tinged with golden on sides; eight or more blackish 

 longitudinal streaks on sides, those below more or less inter- 

 rupted. 



