1865.] PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 163 



ON THE ETHEOSTOMA VARIATUM OF KIRTLAND. 

 By BAVIl) S. JOKDAIV. 



lu the Boston Journal of Natural History 1840, pp. 274-276, Dr. Kirt- 

 land lias described two species of Darters, under the names of Etheos- 

 toma rariata and Etlieostoma maculata. The second of these has been 

 till lately known only from specimens in the National Museum, col- 

 lected by Dr. Kirtlaud and Professor Baird in the original locality. 

 Lately, on comparison of these specimens with others from Tennessee, 

 Professor Gilbert has recognized the identity of Etlieostoma maculata 

 with the Pa'cilichthys sanguifluus of Cope. 



The Etlieostoma variata has been Ics fortunate. Kirtlaud himself re- 

 garded it as identical with the later-described Etlieostoma ccerulea of 

 Storer, and under the name of PceciUclithys variatus, Agassiz made the 

 latter species the type of his genus Pwcilichtliys. Putnam and Vaillant 

 have correctly considered the Etlieostoma variata as different from the 

 PceciUclithys ccendeus, but they have given no explanatiou of the grounds 

 of their opinion. 



In my earlier papers I have adopted Dr. Kirtland's view that the 

 Etlieostoma variata is the same as PceciUclithys ccertileus. The resem- 

 blance in color of the two seemed to supi)ort this opinion, and the dis- 

 crepancies in the description and figure were supposed to be due to in- 

 accuracies on Dr. Kirtland's part. 



In the Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, p. 503, Professor 

 Gilbert and myself have adopted the view that Dr. Kirtland's figure 

 and description were based on a specimen of Hadroptcrus pcltatus, 

 Stauffer, to which the coloration of PceciUclithys carulens had been 

 ascribed. 



I have recently received two specimens of a Darter, taken in the 

 "White Water River at Brookville, Indiana, by Amos W. Butler. The 

 larger of these, 3;^ inches long, an adult male, agrees very closely with 

 Dr. Kirtland's description of Etlieostoma variatum^ and is evidently the 

 species which Dr. Kirtlaud had in mind. 



It is a species i^reviously unknown to me (except from two discolored 

 and ill-preserved specimens — the types of Hadropterus tessellatus), and 

 its rediscovery forms an important addition to our knowledge of these 

 fishes. 



The following is the synonymy of the species, with a description of 

 my largest specimen : 



Hadropterus variatus. 



Etlieostoma variatum, Kirtland, Zool. Ohio, 1838, 168, 192 ; Kirtland, Boston 



Joura. Nat. Hist., iii, 1840, 274. (Mahoning R.) 

 Hadrojjterus variatus, Putnam, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 1, 1863, 4. (Name 

 only.) 



