SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF THE BLACK BASS. 33 



him it looked more like a wrasse or cunner, Labrus, than a trout; 

 but no matter, it must .resemble a trout somehow or the Americans 

 would not call it so. So he put it down in his great work as Labi-us 

 salmoides, the trout-like Labrus, to the everlasting injury of the 

 fish. The name is not only senseless, but bad Latin, the proper 

 form of the word being Salmonoides. 



Lace"pede had another specimen of the Black Bass, without label, 

 and from an unknown locality. This one had the last rays of the 

 dorsal broken and torn loose from the rest, and was otherwise in a 

 forlorn condition. This specimen he considered as a genus distinct 

 from the other, and he gave it the name of Micropterus dolomieu 

 " Dolomieu's small-fin." Dolomieu was a friend of Lacepede, who 

 had had about as much to do with the fish as George Washington or 

 Victor Hugo. No one could tell, either from figure or description, 

 what this Micropterus dolomieu was ; but Cuvier, thirty years later, 

 found the original type and pronounced it a Black Bass, in poor con- 

 dition, and declared that "the genus and species of Micropterus ought 

 to disappear from the catalogue of fishes." 



Then the versatile and eccentric Professor Rafinesque appeared 

 upon the scene, and in rapid succession gave the small-mouthed 

 Black Bass names enough for a whole family. First he called it 

 Bodianm achigan, being told that the Canadian voyageurs knew the 

 fish as Pachigan. Then afterward specimens of different sizes ap- 

 peared as Calliurus punctulatus, Lepomis trifasciata, Lepomis flexuolaris, 

 Lepomis sahnonea, Lepomis nolata, and Etheostoma calliura. Soon 

 after Le Sueur, with a lofty scorn for Kafinesque and his doings, 

 named specimens of different sizes, Cichla fasciata, Cichla ohiensis, 

 and Cichla minima. Lastly, DeKay, in 1842, called it Centrarchus 

 obscurus, and we hope this may be the last. 



Now, the name salmoides, being the oldest, is, of course, the one 

 to be adopted. But suppose we "stamp it out." Is Micropterus 

 dolomieu any better ? Out with it ! Micropterus achigan t Just as 

 bad. I fear that the " stamping out " process would have to be 

 continued too long. You may spell it salmonoides if you like, but 

 you can not get rid of it. 



Now for the large-mouthed Bass. The oldest description we find 

 is that of a young specimen from the Ohio by Rafinesque, in 1820, 

 as Lepomis pallida. The description is poor enough, and not 



