30 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



generic name given to a representative of the genus, the two species 

 should be designated as (a) Microptcnissnlmoidea, the small-mouthed 

 black bass, and {h) Micropteruii HigricaHH,[*'\ the large-mouthed 

 black bass. 



Ill 1873, Professor Gill traced back tlie large-mouth ed 

 Black Bass only to Hnro lugricans Ciiv. & Yal., and 

 named it MicropLerus nigricans (0. & V.) Gill, as shown in 

 the foregoing review. 



But in 1874, Professor G. Brown Goode, while collect- 

 ing in Florida, found this species exceedingly abundant, 

 and the only species of the Black Bass represented in that 

 State; consequently, in 1876, he restored the name be- 

 stowed on this species, from the same locality, by Le Sueur, 

 in 1822 {Cii-lda floridami), and in accordance with the law 

 of ])riority, called it Micropteriis jlovidanus (Le Sueur) 

 Goode. 



In tlie following year (1877), however, Professor Jordan 

 found that the same species was very numerous in the 

 tributaries of the Ohio Kiver, in Kentucky, where Rafin- 

 esque fished in 1818-20, and after a thorough investigation, 

 he and Prof Gill identified this species as Lcpomis pallida 

 Raf; whereupon, in obedience to the same law of pre- 

 cedence, they gave to it its present name, Microptcrus 

 'pallidus (Raf.) Gill and Jordan; which, by the way, is as 

 appropriate as all other synonyms are incongruous, and 

 which might be expected fiom its having been the name 

 by which the species was designated by a natunilist who 

 took his specimens, alive and kicking, from nature's book. y 



» Profs. GiU and Jordan subsiMiiiontly snb-tiluli'd Mirio)>trnis pallidus for 

 Micnipicrus ni(jricai\s, for reasons which wiU appear hilcr in tliis i'hai>tfr.— 

 J. A. H. 



t " In fiirllicr justification of the opinions liere advancod.it may be 



