155 



CENTRARCHUS. 



Allied in form to the fishes we have just de- 

 scribed, we have one or two species which ap- 

 pear to belong to the form denominated by Cuvier 

 and Valenciennes Centrarchiis, and of which they 

 give the Cychla wnca of Lesseur as typical. They 

 place this form, and that to which we have referred 

 another fish, Pomotis, next each other, and discuss 

 them in the same chapter, distinguishing that which 

 we have now before us principally by the greater 

 number of spines to the anal fin, while in Pomotis 

 they are few, generally three in number, and the 

 operculum is terminated in an ear-like membrane, 

 which has suggested the generic name. Both forms, 

 so far as known, are found chiefly in the fresh 

 waters of North America, feed on insects and 

 aquatic larva?, and several of them are used for the 

 table. Tlie characters given in the " Histoire Na- 

 turelle des Poissons " are nearly as follows : 



" Centrarchus. — Has the body oval, compressed; a single 

 dorsal fin ; teeth " en velours," upon the jaws, anterior 

 to the vomer, upon the palatine bones, and on the base 

 of the tongue, the preoperculum entire, end of the oper- 

 culum in two flat points."* 



* Translated from Hist. Nat. des Poiss. iii. p. 84. 



