il PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [1885. 



5. As most of the skeletal characters change by degrees, none of them 

 are of much use in delining genera, 



6. Those skeletal characters apparently of most luiportauce are in the 

 structure of the mouth, the breadth of the frontal region {Percina)^ the 

 number of vertebrae, and the outline of a transverse section of the skull 



across the parietals, whether/' ^, as in Boleosoma, &c., or f\,a>t^ 



in Etheostoma. The prolongation of the frontals in JEtheostoma flabellare 

 and in Hadropteruft pho.vocepkahus and its shortness in Etheostoma zonule 

 seem to be purely specific characters. The development of the nearly 

 obsolete supraoccipital crest, the distinctness of the sutures, and the 

 sculpture of the parietals are features which offer no basis for tren- 

 chant division, except, perhaps, as distinguishing Percina from all th<' 

 others. 



6. As defined by skeletal characters alone, we may distinguish Per 

 cina, Etheostoma, 31icroperea, and perhaps JJiplesion and Ammocrypta 

 from the rest as distinct genera. The other groups, if retained, must 

 be separated from these and from each other by other characters. 



Indiana University, March 3, 1885. 



NOTE ON THE SCIENTIFIC NAME OF THE yELLO\V PERCH, THE 

 STRIPED BASS, AND OTHER NORTH AMERICAN FISHES. 



By 1>AVI1> N. .VORDAN. 



By the rules of nomenclature now adopted by the American Orni 

 thologists' Union (rules which the present writer i)roposes to follow in 

 future ichthyological papers), certain names now in current use in North 

 American Ichthyology become untenable. The following cases come 

 under the rule, which has been tlms formulated, "Once a synonym, 

 always a synonym." 



1. The name Perca americana (Schranck 1794) is antedated by Perca 

 americana Gmeliu ( =Eoccus [Morone) americanus). The yellow J*.erch 

 must therefore stand apparently as Perca lutea. The name Gentropomus 

 luteus, Rafinesque, " Precis des Decouvertes Somiologiques, 1814," is 

 apparently prior to that of Bodiarius flavescens, Mitchill, 1815. 



2. The name Perca saxatUis, Bloch «& Schneider is similarly antedated 

 by Perca saxatilis of Bloch, which is a species of Crenicichla. The name 

 next in date is that of Perca septentrionalis, Bloch & Schneider, Syst. 

 Ichth., 90. The Striped Bass may therefore stand as Koccus septentrio- 

 nalis. 



3. Similarly the species described by Girard as Gohius gracilis is dif- 

 ferent from the earlier Gohius gracilis of Jeuyus. The former should 

 stand as Lepiogohius lepidu,s,irom the later name of Gohius lepidns, Grd. 



4. Lepadogaster reticulatus, Girard is preoccupied by Lepadogasier re- 



