394 EXPLOEATIONS ACROSS THE GKEAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



the genus Perca, all the species of which, he informs us, have naked heads. He sug- 

 gested for it a new genus, for which he proposed to give the name Lep'd»ema, in allu- 

 sion to the scaly liases of the unpaired fins. Lesueur subsequently sent to the Paris- 

 ian Museum two specimens of a species which he called Fora muUUineata, which 

 Cu\-ier and Valenciennes placed in their genus Lahrax, adopting for it the specific 

 name of Lesueur. Tlieir description is mostly comparative, it being said to difter 

 from the Lahrax Uiieafus l)y its higher body, shorter head, more feeble teeth, the 

 stronger asperities of the tongue, and especially the larger scales of the maxillaries, 

 which resemljle those of Lahrax unicroiudiis, while in Lahrax I'nicafifs they were said to 

 be scarcely perceptiljle. 



The description of the lingual dentition is very unsatisfactor}', and no j-orrection 

 is made of tlie statement made in the second volume tliat the Lahrax Ihiraiiis lias only 

 lateral teeth. It is not so much in the development of the asperities of the tongue 

 that the lingual dentition of the species differs, as in that, while there are two narrow 

 rows separated by a mesial line in Roeciis I meatus, the rows are broader at tlie middle 

 in pro})ortion, and coalescent in liocrus cJiri/sops. 



Tliere were said to be in one specimen sixteen, and in another nineteen, longitu- 

 dinal dark lines. So large a number is rarely seen; the most constant arrangement is 

 five above, including the one through which the lateral line runs, while sometimes 

 there are several below the lateral line, and at other times they are obsolete. Tliese 

 lines are sometimes straight, but often interrupted. 



In the "Fauna Boreali-Americana" of Richardson, a Lahrax is described in tlie 

 volume on Ichthyology, under the name Lahrax notatns (Smith), the Bar-fish, or 

 "Canadian Basse". This species is said to "difter from Mitchill's Basse {L. Uncatas, 

 Cuvier) in being nnu-li more robust, and in being marked with rows of spots, five 

 al)ove and five below the lateral line, so regularly interrupted and transposed as to 

 appear like ancient church-music". It has been suggested by Dr. De Kay that it is 

 the same as the Ferca Mifclulli var. hifcrntpttis of Mitchill, but the comparison will 

 apply very well to Boccus clirysops, and it is doubtless identical with that species. In 

 the remarks upon the species, it is said, by Dr. Richardson apparently, that "in the 

 more robust form, and in the strong scales of the head, the Canadian Bar-fish resembles 

 the L. mucronatus of the United States and the West Indies, and the L. multiVmeatus of 

 the Wabash. Tlie latter has sixteen narrow, black, longitudinal lines on the flanks." 

 It has been attempted to show that the number of lines is not a specific character; and 

 if this is the case, the Lahrax iiotafus and L. midtUincatHs are probably identical with 

 each other and with • Boccus clirysops. The Lahrax notatus, it is true, is stated by 

 Smith to have Init (me anal spine and six articulated ventral rays; but this statement 

 is undoubtedly due to a lapsus calami, or an ernn- of observation. So great a variation 

 in the nimiber of anal spines, from a nearly allied species, Avould 1)0 in direct opposi- 

 tion to all we know of the peculiarities of the fishes of this tribe, while it is one of the 

 characters of the fannly to have only five branched rays in the ventral fins. Smith 

 states that he counted fifty-eight scales along the lateral line, a statement which con- 

 firms the identity of his species with Boccus clirysops. 



In the abstracts of Smith's description of Lahrax notatus, given by De Kay and 

 Storer, the species is said to have the " length, one to two feet". Even if this was so, it 



