SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF THE BLACK BASS. 39 



MieropteruH sahnoides for the lurge-moiithetl Bass ; and as 

 we call the small-inoiithed Bass by the same name, it 

 "would produce endless confiisiou were this state of things 

 to continue. If the Black Bass of Europe were always to 

 be confined to a few preserved specimens and plaster casts 

 in the museums, it would not matter so much ; but as this 

 desirable game fish has been already introduced into Eng- 

 lish waters, and will no doubt, in time, be transplanted 

 into those of the Continent, it would seem to be a matter 

 of some interest to obtain a correct, uniform, and universal 

 nomenclature of the species. Even at the present dav, 

 Dr. Giinther, the great English authority, in a work re- 

 cently issued (Introduction to the Study of Fishes, 1880), 

 nails Grystes and Iluro to the mast-head as valid 

 genera. 



It will be noticed that Dr. Vaillant adopts the north- 

 ern and southern varieties of the small-mouthed Bass as 

 provisional species, and likewise separates the large- 

 mouthed Bass into tw^o species, one being distinguished 

 by teeth on the tongue, the other by their absence. I have 

 often noticed this peculiarity of the presence or absence of 

 lingual teeth in the large-mouthed species in fish from 

 various waters, (and am not sure but I have oljservi^d it 

 in the small-mouthed species occasionally), but I have 

 always considered it as developed, possibly, by the char- 

 acter of the food in certain localities, or merely a phase 

 of individual variation. Prof. Jordan takes this same 

 view of it, as the following extract will show : ''" 



"•■■Notes on a Collection of Fishes from East Florida, obtained by Dr. 

 J. A. Henshall. By David S. Jordan, M.D. <Proceedings of United 

 States National Museum, III, 1880, pp. 17-22. 



