FAMILY PERCID. 15 
GENUS HURO. Cuwvier. 
With most of the characters of the Genus Perca, but wanting denticulations on the bones 
of the head, and more especially on the preopercle. Opercle with two small flat points. 
THE BLACK HURON. 
Huro NIGRICANS. 
PLATE LXIX. FIG. 224. 
Huro nigricans. Cuv. & Vat. Hist. des Poissons, Vol. 2, p.124, pl. 17. 
Perca (Huro) nigricans. RicHarpson, Faun. Boreal. Am. Vol. 3, p. 4. 
Characteristics. Back and sides dark, with a faint greyish longitudinal streak through each 
row of scales. Length sixteen inches. 
Description. General form that of the Perch. Greatest depth of the body under the first 
dorsal, and equal to one-third of the length of the body. Scales large, smooth, covering the 
head as far as the orbit, and extending also on the opercles. Lateral line tubular, concurrent 
with the dorsal outline. Head flattened above, with strie diverging to the orbits. Lower 
jaw directed obliquely upwards, and projecting 0-25 beyond the upper. Velvet-like teeth on 
the jaws, vomer and palatines. Tongue The bony opercle has an acute oblique notch 
on its posterior margin, producing two thin points. The branchial membrane, according to 
Cuvier, with seven rays. Richardson enumerates but six. The first dorsal small; its third 
ray longest, the fourth and fifth nearly as long. The second dorsal an inch behind the first, 
and one-third higher ; the two first rays spinous, short; the first ray articulated, simple; the 
remainder branched. In the only specimen hitherto examined, the rays of this fin were in- 
jured, but Cuvier supposes that there must have been twelve or thirteen: only eight were 
visible. Pectorals with the first ray very short. Ventrals immediately beneath them. Anal, 
with its branched rays, equal in height to those of the second dorsal. Caudal slightly emar- 
ginate, with its tips rounded. 
Color, taken from a dried specimen. Back and sides dark, with a faint longitudinal streak 
through the centre of each row of scales. Belly yellowish white. 
Length, 17°5. 
bins 16.2.8 or 12's bs 15a) Vind cols AL Sells ©. 17-2. 
This is a remarkably firm and well-flavored fish, taken readily with the hook during the 
summer months in Lake Huron, where it is called Black Bass. It will probably be found in 
Lake Erie, and of course within the limits of the State. As I have not seenit, I have availed 
myself of the description and figure given by Cuvier and Valenciennes. Its history is yet 
imperfect ; nor, with our present knowledge, can we assign it positively its proper place in 
the family. 
