ICHTHYOBUS BUBALUS 215 



Iclhyobus rauchii PUTNAM, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 10, 1863. 



Icthyobm rauchii JORDAN & COPELAND, Check List, 158, 1876. 



Ictliyobus rauchii JORDAN & GILBERT, in Klippart's Rept. 53, 1876. 



Ichthyolus rauchii JORDAN, Man. Vert. ed. 2d, 323, 1878. 

 1855 Icthyobus stolleyi AGASSIZ, Am. Journ. Sc. Arts, 2d series, xix, 196. 



Icthyobus stolleyi JORDAN & COPELAND, Check List, 158, 1876. 

 1877 Ictliyobus iscltyrus NELSON, MSS. JORDAN, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. 72. 



Icthyobus ischyrus JORDAN & COPELAND, Check List, 158, 1876. 



Ictliyobus ischyrus JORDAN & GILBERT, in Klippart's Rept. 53, 1876. 



Ichihyobiw ischyru* JORDAN, Man. Vert. eel. 2d, 323, 1878. 



HABITAT. Mississippi Valley ; generally abundant in the larger streams. 



Aii examination of a large series of wide-mouthed Buffalo fishes 

 from the Ohio, Wabash, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers has convinced 

 me, contrary to my previous impressions, that all belong to a single 

 species. It is not absolutely certain what Eafinesque's Catostomm 

 bubalus was. It is perhaps as likely to have been a species of Buba 

 lichthys, as supposed by Dr. Kirtland, as an Ichthyobus. I however 

 follow Professor Agassiz in identifying it with the present species, 

 which is, at the Falls of the Ohio, where Ratiuesque's collections were 

 made, probably the most abundant of the Buffalo-fishes. Neither 

 Rafinesque nor Professor Agassiz has, however, recognizably described 

 the species. In my Manual of Vertebrates, in 1876, I gave a short 

 account of Ichtliyobus bubalus, drawn from two large specimens taken in 

 Wabash River at Lafayette. Besides these, I have numerous smaller 

 specimens, obtained in the Mississippi at Saint Louis. As these differed 

 in the greater compression of the body and higher fins, I have identi- 

 fied them as belonging to Ichthyobus rauchii Agassiz, an identification 

 which I still think correct. In 1877, Mr. Nelson described an Iclithyobus 

 ischyrus, from Mackinaw Creek, a tributary of the Illinois River, near 

 Peoria. His typical specimen was very stout and deep, and at the time I 

 thought with him that it was probably distinct from I. bubalus. Lately I 

 have been enabled to re-examine the type of 1. ischyrusin the State Museum 

 of Illinois, and to compare it with a numerous series from the same 

 locality. I found it possible to establish an unbroken series among 

 them, connecting the nominal species which 1 had termed bubalm, 

 rauchii, and ischyrus, the differences separating them being, in my opin- 

 ion, due cither to differences of age or to individual peculiarities. Ay 

 no description of any importance has been published of I. stolleyi, I 

 include it as a synonym of /. bubalus. I know nothing whatever x con- 

 cerning it. Iclithyobus cyaneUus Nelson, as below stated, is a species of 



