522 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Family 



Sea Basses 



Genus ROCCUS Mitchill 



Base of tongue with one or two patches of teeth; anal spines 

 graduated; dorsal fins entirely separate; anal rays III, 11 or 12; 

 supraoccipital crest scarcely widened above; lower jaw project- 

 ing. Vertebrae 12+1325. Otherwise as in M o r o n e , the 

 body more elongate, the scales smoother, and the fins more 

 slender than in M o r o n e . Species all American, valued as 

 food fishes. In both R o c c u s and M o r o n e , the antrorse 

 preopercular spines (characteristic of the European genus or 

 subgenus Dicentrarchus) are wanting. 



259 Roccus chrysops (Rafinesque) 

 White Bass 



Perca chrysops RAFINESQUE, Ichthyol. Ohien. 22, 1820. 



Labrax alUckis DE KAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 13, pi. 51, fig. 165, 1842, 



Buffalo. 

 Labrax notatus RICHARDSON, Fauna Bor.^Amer. Ill, 8, 1836; GUNTHER, Cat. 



Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 6T, 1859. 

 Roccus chrysops GILL, Rept. Capt. Simpson's Surv. Great Basin Utah, 391, 



pi. 1, fig. 1-7, 1876; JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 529, 



1883; BEAN, Fishes Penna. 132, pi. 34, fig. 71, 1893; Bull. Am. Mus. 



Nat. Hist. IX, 365, 1897; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. 



Mus. 1132, 1896, pi. CLXXX, fig. 477, 1900; EUGENE SMITH, Proc. Linn. 



Soc. N. Y. 1897, 38, 1898. 



The white bass has the body oblong, elevated and compressed; 

 its depth contained two and one half times in the total length 

 without caudal, the length of the head about three and one 

 third times in this length; head subconical, depressed over eye; 

 mouth moderate, the maxillary reaching to below middle of eye; 

 length of eye almost equal to length of snout; villiform teeth in 

 bands on jaws, palatines, vomer and tongue; the dorsal outline 

 is much curved, the fins well separated. 



D. IX, 1, 14; A. Ill, 11 to 12. Scales 8-60-13. General color 

 silvery, tinged with golden on sides; eight or more blackish 

 longitudinal streaks on sides, those below more or less inter- 

 rupted. 



