14 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



Cichla ohiensis and Cichla minhim, and the large-mouthed 

 Bass from Florida as Cichla fioridana, thus dis.^entiiig from, 

 or entirely ignoring, Rafinesque. 



In 1828, the great Cuvier and his coadjutor, Valenci- 

 ennes, received from Lake Huron a specimen of the large- 

 mouthed Black Bass, and ^vhieh, as in the case of the first 

 small-mouthed Bass sent to France, was an abnormal or 

 monstrous specimen, having likewise a deformed dorsal fin. 

 In this instance, the last three or four rays of the spinous 

 dorsal fin were torn off, thus leaving, apparently, two sep- 

 arate and distinct dorsal fins, the first composed of six 

 spines, and the second of two spines and twelve or thirteen 

 soft rays. This specimen was sent to them under the local 

 name of " Black Bass," or " Black Perch ; " and not sus- 

 pecting the mutilation of the specimen, they named it 

 Huro nigricans — the " Black Huron." 



In the. following year, 1829, Cuvier and Valenciennes 

 obtained two specimens (the largest of which, at least, was 

 a large-mouthed Bass) from New York, under the name 

 of " Growler," and four specimens of the small-mouthed 

 Bass from the Wabash Biver, in Indiana, all of which 

 they identified with Lacepede's Labrus salmoidcs, and Le 

 Sueur's Cichla variabilis, and which they named Grystes 

 salmoides; subsequently Cuvier and A'^alenciennes announced 

 that Lacepede's Micropterus dolomieu was also identical 

 with their Grystes salmoides. 



In 1842, Dr. DeKay, in his " Fishes of New York," after 

 reproducing Cuvier and Valenciennes' figures and descrip- 

 tions of ITuro nigricans and Grystes salmoidcs, described 

 specimens of the small-mouthed Black Bass under two ad- 

 ditional names : Centrarchus fasciatus and Centrarchus ob- 

 scurus, claiming the latter as a new species. 



