FAMILY PERCIDA — LABRAX. 11 
“This perch, which nearly equals in size our river perch, inhabits the coast of New-York and Long 
Island, in and at the mouths of fresh-water streams. It wants the six black lines and the black mark 
at the end of the dorsal, which characterize the European fresh-water perch. The first dorsal, more- 
over, has but thirteen (nine?) rays.” 
THE LITTLE WHITE BASS. 
LaBraxX PALLIDUS. 
PLATE I. FIG. 2.— (STATE COLLECTION.) 
Morone pallida. Mircuiii, Report on the Fishes of N. Y. p. 18. 
Bodianus pallidus. Ip. Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. N. Y. Vol. 1, p. 420. 
Characteristics. Body compressed, small, light-colored. First ray of the posterior dorsal 
nearly as long as the second. Opercle witha single spine. Length 3 - 4 
inches. 
Description. Body much compressed. The back, anterior to the dorsal fin, carinate ; head 
declivous ; scales rounded, minutely pectinate, readily detached, extending over the cheeks 
and to the interobital space. Lateral line concurrent with the back. Nostrils double ; the 
posterior obliquely ovate. ine velvet teeth on the maxillaries, intermaxillaries and palatines ; 
and with a strong lens, a band of teeth may be traced on each edge of the tongue. Opercle 
* with a single flat spine, and a pointed membrane eXtending beyond it. Preopercle angular, 
serrated. Interopercle with a minute flattened spine ; humerus without a spine. Dorsal ap- 
parently double, but connected by a low membrane: the anterior portion consists of nine 
spinous rays, of which the fourth is longest; the first very short, the second and eighth 
subequal. The first ray of the posterior portion spinous, long, nearly equalling in height the | 
first branched ray ; the upper margin of this fin descends more abruptly than in the preceding 
species. Pectorals placed just anterior to the origin of the ventrals, feeble ; the first ray short 
and rudimentary, the second long and simple, the remainder branched. Ventrals situated 
beneath the first rays of the dorsal fin ; its first ray spinous, shorter than the second, third 
longest. Anal fin with three spinous rays, of which the first equals in length the first ray 
of the anterior dorsal ; the second and third more than double the length of the first. Caudal 
fin deeply emarginate. Air-bladder simple. 
Color. Light bluish above, and paler beneath; sides and abdomen white. Base of the 
ventrals and anal fins faint pinkish. Some of the scales dark-colored, so as to represent a 
few irregular, interrupted horizontal bands along the sides; this appearance, however, is 
scarcely perceptible when the fish is just drawn from the water. 
Length, 4°5. Depth, 1°5. 
Pte Oulos Po 172 Vel .55 A. 3:73 C. V7 2. 
