480 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IV, 
large, the projecting snout usually forming an angle above eye. Mouth 
quite small, oblique, the jaws about equal, the maxillary barely reach- 
ing the front of the eye. Five rows of scales on cheeks. Opercular 
hap very short in the young ; iu the adult rather long and wide, without 
pale edge. Gill-rakers moderately long, nearly terete, bent slightly 
downwards, about 10 well developed. Dorsal spines strong and high, 
usually longer than snout and eye. Ventral fins reaching anal ; pectorals 
reaching past anal spines. Olive green ; adults dark ; young more or 
less silvery, with a purple lustre in life; sides with undulating, often 
chain-like, transverse greenish bars, which become obsolete in the adult; 
no blue stripes on cheeks ; a diffuse black blotch at base of posterior 
rays of dorsal and anal, often obscure in young; no red on hns; very 
old specimens often with the belly coppery red. Head 3 ; depth 2. D. 
X, 11; A. Ill, 10; Lat. 1. 11. L. 8 inches. Great Lakes to Florida and 
IMexico; very abundant; one of our most widely diffused and variable 
species. 
( Lahrus palhuhis MitcRill, Traua. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. 1815, 407 ; Jordan, Man. Vert. 
241: Lahrm appendix Mitchill, Amer. Month. Mag. 247, 1818 (not Pomotis appendix oi 
authors): Pomotis incisor Q . &V. vii,4()6: Pomotis incisor Gmitlxer, i, 289: IchtheJis in- 
cisor Holbrook, Ichth. S. C. 12: Pomotis gibbosus C. & V. vii, 467 : Pomotis speciosus, and 
aquilensis B. & G. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1854, 24 : Pomotis speciosus Giinther, i, 288: 
l^omotis lima Grd. U. S. Pac. R. R. Snrv. Fish, x, 22: Lepomis longisinnis, mcgalotis, and 
ardesiacus Cope, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1868, 220, 222 : Lepomis purpurascens Cope, 
Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. Phila. 1870, 453: Pomotis obscurus* Agassiz, Amer. .loiiru. Sci. 
Arts, 1854, 302: Ltpiopomns obscurus Jordan, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. 1876, 317, a deeply 
colored variety, from the Tennessee Basin and southward.) 
aa. Pharyngeal teeth mostly bluntly conic. {Xijstroplitesi Jordan.) 
'752. El. laeros (B. & G.) McKay. 
Appearance of Lepom is pallidus. Body robust, deep ; the front steep, 
the projecting snout forming a considerable angle at the eye. Caudal 
peduncle rather long. Mouth moderate. Eye large. Scales on cheeks 
in 4 or 5 rows. Ofiercnlar flap broad, about as large as eye, with an 
orange margin below and behind. Spines strong and rather high. 
*The life colors of ^‘Lepomis obscurus” are as follows: 
Dark green above, the shoulders and front of hack with distinct greenish-black 
spots; sides with wide dark-green bars; chest bright coiipery-red, spotted with black- 
ish and orange; sides of belly with blackish and carmine ; face, lower jaw, and lower 
parts of head of a peculiar bright leaden blue; cheeks orange and lead-blue, not 
striped; opercular spot large, all black; vertical tins dark blue-green; a black spot 
on last rays of dorsal and anal. 
t Jordan MSS. Cope, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1877, 66: type Xystroplites gillii Jor- 
dan =Rri/R«s Grd. (^vSrpov, a scraper — gill-raker; ottAzt^/s, armed.) 
