28 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



black bass."* The species are quite well distinguished by the size 

 of the mouth and the comparative size of the scales : his Grystes ni- 

 gricans is, however, not the true Grystes nigricans (Huro nigricans, 

 Guv. & Val.), as that name really belongs to his Grystes megastoma. 



In 1859, Dr. Giintherj- described specimens of the small-mouthed 

 species under the name Grystes salmoides, and first restricted the 

 genus to that species (having removed the Australian species as the 

 type of a new genus Oligorus). Having overlooked the rectifica- 

 tions by Prof. Agassiz, he continued the errors of his predecessors, 

 admitting as nominal species (1) Huro nigricans, (2) Centrarchus 

 fasciatus, and (3) Centrarchus obscurus, and also the same species 

 as doubtful forms (in foot-notes) of Grystes, i. e., G. nuecensis and 

 G. fasciatus. 



For the present, the notices and descriptions of the several forms 

 of the genus by other authors may be passed over in silence, as they 

 do not involve any questions of nomenclature. It may be added, 

 however, (1) that the author had long recognized the existence and 

 differences of the two species of the genus, one under the name Mi- 

 cropterus achigan, the other as Micropterus nigricans, and (2) that 

 Prof. Cope, under the names Micropterus fasciatus (which he at- 

 tributed to the present author through some misapprehension) and 

 Micropterus nigricans has signalized the same species from widely 

 distant regions (e. g., Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina*), and has 

 evidently understood their relations. 



Analysis of all the published descriptions and comparison with the 

 fishes themselves, led to the following conclusions : 



SECTION 1. MORPHOLOGICAL. 



After an examination and comparison with each other of specimens 

 from the great lakes (Champlain to Michigan), the states of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, 

 Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Virginia, North 



* " This fish has been identified with the common black bass (Grystes fasci- 

 atus), but is by no means the same fish, differing in many respects, both in its 

 habits and physical structure, and has not been described in any work on 

 American fishes, so far as I can learn " (op. cit. p. 108). 



f GUNTHER (Albert). Catalogue of the Acanthopterygian Fishes in the 

 Collection of the British Museum, . . . Vol. i, . . . London, . . . 1859 [pp. 253-25^). 



