30 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS, 



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

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

 ])lack bass, and {h) 3Iicropterus nigricans,\y~\ the large-mouthed 

 black bass. 



In 1873, Professor Gill traced back tlie large-mouthed 

 Black Bass only to Huro nigricans Cuv. & Val., and 

 named it Micropierus nigricans (C. & 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 (^Cichlafloridana), and in accordance with the law 

 of priority, called it 3Iicropterus floridanus (Le Sueur) 

 Goode. 



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

 found that the same species was very numerous in the 

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

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

 he and Prof. Gill identified this species as Lepomis pallida 

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

 cedence, they gave to it its present name, Micropierus 

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

 appropriate as all other synonyms are incongruous, and 

 which might be expected from its having been the name 

 by which the species was designated by a naturalist who 

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



* Profs. GiU and Jordan subseqnently substituted Micropterus pallidus for 

 Micropierus nigricans, for reasons which wiU appear later in this chapter. — 

 J. A. H. 



t " In further justification of the opinions here advanced, it may be 



