58 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



I have never met an angler who had heard a Blaek 

 " growl," yet it was on the supposition that it did so, 

 that Cuvier gave it this name. We had better stop here, 

 for if we go farther we shall fare worse. We will there- 

 fore now refer to the objectionable features of the specific 

 names dolomieu and snlmoides. 



Salmoides (trout-like ; literally, salmon-like). Lacepede 

 conferred this name simply (and appropriately, so far as he 

 was concerned) because the figure was sent to him as the 

 "Trout," or "Trout-Perch" of Carolina ; (he might have 

 called it boseii It is my belief that if he had received 

 Bosc's drawing prior to his specimen — 31. dolomieu — he 

 would have named it — the drawing — Labrus dolomieu.) If 

 Ave take its game qualities into consideration, there is no 

 fish that is so " salmon-like " as the Black Bass ; none that 

 exhibits so nearly the characteristic leap, the pluck, and 

 the endurance of the " king of the waters," The name is, 

 therefore, not altogether inappropriate. 



Dolomieu being a French proper noun, without a Latin 

 or genitive form, might be considered objectionable. 

 Ijacepede used the name, however, in this form, advisedly; 

 not through ignorance, nor by accident, but for the sake of 

 euphony, and to perpetuate the name of his friend in its 

 integrity. In the original edition of his Avork he uses the 

 French form dolomieu, but has the Latin form as a foot- 

 note under each specific heading; while in many of the re- 

 prints the editor has left out these Latin names as irrelevant. 



In order to recognize and respect Lacepede's motive, it 

 is best to let the name stand just as he wrote it, dolomieu. 



logical, but as Jack Bunsby would tsav, its force " lies in tbe ajiplicatioii 

 ufit." 



