200 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY III. 



Middle States. I have no specimens referable to this species from the 

 Great Lakes, nor from the Mississippi or the Ohio. If cypritius, tumi- 

 dus, and damalis are identical, however, one of two things must be true. 

 Either C. cyprinus really inhabits the whole Mississippi Valley, but has 

 been overlooked or confounded with others, or else we have a very curi- 

 ous anomaly in the distribution of the species, it being an inhabitant 

 of waters of two widely separated areas, having little in common. The 

 former supposition seems the most probable, and I accordingly look for 

 specimens of C. cyprinus in the Mississippi Valley. 



Specimens in United States National Museum. 



49. CARPIODES CARPIO (Rafinesque) Jordan. 



Big Carp Sucker. Olive Carp Sucker. 



1820 Catostomus carpio RAFINESQUE, Ich. Oh. 56. 



Carpiodes carpio JORDAN, Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Hist. 95, 1876. 



Carpiodes carpio JORDAN, Man. Vert. 297, 1876. 



Ichthyobus carpio NELSON, Bull. No. 1, Ills. Mas. Nat. Hist. 49, 1876. 



Carpiodes carpio JORDAN & COPELAND, Check List", 158, 1876. 



Carpiodes carpio JORDAN & GILBERT, in Klippart's Rept. 53, 1876. 



Carpiodes carpio JORDAN, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. 72, 1877. 



Carpiodts carpio JORDAN, Bull, U. S. Nat. Mus. ix, 34, 1877. 



Carpiodes carpio JORDAN, Man. Vert. ed. 2d, 322, 1878. 

 1870 Carpiodes nummifer COPE, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. Phila. 484. 



HABITAT. Mississippi Valley. Abundant in the Ohio River. 



This is the most abundant species of its genus in the Ohio Kiver and 

 its tributaries. It is the largest species, the most elongate, and has the 

 lowest fin-rays and the smallest head. The peculiar enlargement of the 

 anterior rays of the dorsal I have found to be an excellent diagnostic 

 character. This species has been well described by Professor Cope 

 under the name of C. nummifer. There can, however, be but little 



