CATOSTOMID^E. 99 



ated by the union of the parietal bones : mouth inferior, with thick 

 papillose lips : gill-rakers moderate, soft. Genus Cycleptus. 



Bubalichthyina. Body stout, oblong-oval, and compressed. Dorsal 

 fin elongate, beginning more or less in front of the ventral fins, and ex- 

 tending at least as far as the commencement of the anal, its rays 20 to 

 50 in number, the anterior ones more or less elongate : ventral rays 

 usually 10: anal rays 8 to 12: kead stout and heavy : mouth moderate 

 or small, with thin lips : fontanelle open : gill-rakers of anterior arch 

 long, slender, and stiff above, growing smaller downwards. Genera 

 Carpiodes, Bubalichthys, Ichthydbus, Nyxocyprinus. 



As the chief purpose of tbis paper is to ascertain and make known 

 the proper nomenclature of the valid genera and species of Catostomidae, 

 I shall omit further discussion of family and subfamily characters, and 

 proceed at once to a catalogue of described species, arranged in chrono- 

 logical order, with the date and my identification of each species oppo- 

 site its name. As is the case in nearly every group of American fishes, 

 the number of nominal species is about three times the number really 

 existing. It will be noticed that the number of species which I have 

 admitted is in most of the Catostomoid genera fewer than has been 

 recognized by previous writers. This seems to me to result not from any 

 peculiar theories as to what constitutes a species, but from the fact that I 

 have had a greater range of specimens of most forms than any previous 

 writer has had. I am confident that in the presence of a still greater 

 amount of material, the characters of several other species will be found 

 to melt away. To indicate which these species are. in default of such 

 material, would, however, be an unprofitable task. In this group, as in 

 so many others, the truth well stated by Dr. Coues* becomes apparent: 

 "We can only predicate and define species at all from the mere cir- 

 cumstance of missing links. ' Species ' are the twigs of a tree separated 

 from the parent stems. We name and arrange them arbitrarily, in de- 

 fault of a means of reconstructing the whole tree according to Nature's 

 ramifications." 



* Birds of the Northwest, p. 227. 



