91 



VIII. Concerning the Fishes of the Ichthyologia 

 Ohiensis 



BY DAVID S. JORDAN", M. S., M. D. 

 {Bead before this Society, March 3, 1876.) 



Very early in the history of American Science, there was pub- 

 lished, in the backwoods of Kentucky, a little octavo volume of 90 

 pages, bearing the following title: "Ichthyologia Ohiensis; or, 

 Natural History of the Fishes inhabiting the Ohio Eiver and its 

 tributary streams, preceded by a physical description of the Ohio 

 and its branches. By C. S. Eafinesque, Professor ****** *^ 

 Lexington, Kentucky. 1820. Printed for the author by G. W. 

 Hunt. (Price one dollar.)" 



This book has now become exceedingly rare, but as Rafinesque's 

 names for our fishes have priority of date over those of almost all 

 other authors who have written on the Ichthyology of our inland 

 waters, excepting Le Sueur, it becomes a matter of importance to 

 those interested in the stability of our nomenclature to find out 

 and adopt his names whenever the species and groups to which 

 they were intended to apply can be ascertained. 



In this paper I have given a list of the genera, subgenera and 

 species described by Rafinesque, the page in the Ichthyologia on 

 which those descriptions occur, and the equivalent in modern 

 nomenclature of those species and groups, or, more exactly, the 

 names which at present I think they ought to bear. 



In the left-hand column, that of Rafinesque's names, the num- 

 bering and sequence is that of the Ichthyologia, and the authority 

 for each name, unless otherwise expressed, is that of Eafinesque. 

 Several species which the author never saw are more or less inco- 

 herently described from accounts given by other persons, especially 

 from drawings by Audubon, who does not appear to have been very 

 successful in the delineation of fishes. These species are here 

 designated by a star (*). A number of generic groups had been 

 previously characterized by Rafinesque in the American Monthly 

 Magazine and other publications. Excepting in two or three cases 



