SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OP THE BLACK BASS. 31 



111 order to make it perfectly clear why this change of 

 name was considered necessary, I can not do better than 

 to reproduce the following characteristic communication 

 from the pen of Prof. David S. Jordan to the anglers of 

 America : * 



Since the publication of the name Micropterus pallidus (Eaf.), 

 Gill and Jordan, as a substitute for Micropterus nigricans for the 

 scientific name of the* large-mouthed Black Bass, I have received 

 numerous congratulations, verbal and written, from brother fisher- 

 men on the appropriateness of the name "selected," and I presume 

 that my colleague in this matter, Professor Gill, has had a similar 

 experience. Lately, a correspondent of FOREST AND STREAM sug- 

 gests that the name Micropterus salmoides be likewise "stamped out" 

 to make room for some more appropriate appellation. It seems 

 timely, therefore, that we should " rise and explain." 



The name Micropterus pallidus is not a name of our own selection, 

 but a name which by the laws of scientific nomenclature we are 

 bound to use. By the operation of these laws every genus must 

 bear the oldest (generic) name bestowed on any of its members, 

 unless this name has been previously used for something else, or is 

 glaringly false (not simply irrelevant or inappropriate), or is other- 

 wise ineligible ; every species must bear the first (specific) name 



proper for me to state that I had the pleasure of M. Rafinesque's society, 

 during the three years of my official residence in Sicily, from 1807 to 

 1810, and again in 1812, when we were both at Palermo, prosecuting our 

 botanical and ichthyological researches together. . . . M. Rafineeque, 

 unfortunately, was unable to publish more than a synopsis of his ichthy- 

 ological discoveries; and his figures, being very slight, are often not 

 calculated to clear up those doubts which the brevity of his descriptions 

 sometimes creates ; nevertheless, to one who examines the species on the 

 spot, in a fresh state, there are few which may not be identified. M. 

 Cuvier often asserts that all M. Rafinesque's species were described from 

 preserved specimens ; but this is an error they were all taken from the 

 life." SWAINSON, Nat. Hist, and Class, of Fishes, I, 62, 1838. 



* Scientific Names of the Black Bass. By David S. Jordan, M. D. 

 < FOREST AND STREAM, XI, 1878, p. 340. 



