SCIEXID^. 203 



ACANTHOPTEBYOII. SCIENIDjE. 



THE MALASHEGANAY. 



Corvina Richardsonii ; Cuvier. 



This, like the species last named, is an inhabitant of the upper 

 lakes, though it is not found below Lake Erie. In Lake Huron it is 

 known as the Sheep'' s-head^ and in the vicinity of Buffalo as the Black 

 SAeep''s-head. 



It affords very good sport to the angler, and unlike its congener last 

 described, is highly prized as one of the most delicious of the lake 

 fishes. 



Its color is greenish gray, banded with dusky or blackish bars over 

 the back, its sides are silvery, its belly yellowish. In form it closely 

 resembles the Corvina Oscwla, but its forehead descends in a more 

 vertical angle to the mouth. The under jaw is somewhat the longer. 

 The mouth is cleft back as far as to the middle of the eye, which is 

 large and round. The teeth are very numerous and very small. The 

 operculum has two lobes behind. 



The first dorsal fin has nine spinous rays, the second one spine and 

 eighteen soft rays, the pectorals have fifteen soft rays, the ventrals 

 one spine and seven soft rays, the anal one spine and seven soft rays, 

 the caudal seventeen soft branched rays. 



There is yet another species of this family, the Corvina Grrisea, 

 known familiarly as the White Pearch of the Ohio, which is found 

 in the waters of that noble river, but it is of little importance either 

 to the angler or the epicure, and merits not a more particular descrip- 

 tion. 



With this fish ends the list of those fresh-water fishes of the United 

 States and British Provinces, which by the most liberal courtesy mky 

 be called game or sporting fishes. 



Hence I proceed to the shoal-water sea fishes of the same division, ' 

 Acanthopterygii, and thence, and lastly, to the deep-sea fish of the order 

 Sub-brachial Malacopterygii. 



V 



