36 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



The names Labrus, Bodianus, Cichla, and Centrarchus belong to 

 wholly different fishes, and were given by different authors through 

 mistakes as to the relationship of the Black Bass. 



I trust that this hasty and rather rambling account will be of some 

 service to the numerous class of my fishing brethren who like to be 

 right in their use of names, and who want to know, you know, but 

 who, l;ke Wilhelin Tell, can not " lange priifen oder w'ahlen." 



In the summer of 1877, while investigating the fish 

 fauna of the Alleghany region of South Carolina, Georgia, 

 and Tennessee, Professor Jordan became impressed with 

 the fact that the small-mouthed Black Bass of the South- 

 ern States differed constantly in some features from the 

 Northern form of the same- species ; consequently, he sep- 

 arated the species into two varieties, designating the North- 

 ern form as Micropterus salmoides var. achigan, and the 

 Southern form as Micropterus salmoides var. salmoides. 

 His views and arguments are detailed in the following 

 extract : * 



The small-mouthed Black Bass or " Trout " of the Southern 

 streams (i. e., Savanah, Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Alabama) differs 

 so constantly from Northern representatives of the same species that 

 the two forms may be taken as geographical varieties of one species, 

 and it is probably worth while to distinguish each by name. The 

 Labrus salmoides of Lacepede was collected by Bosc, near Charleston, 

 S. C. It was therefore, presumably, the Southern variety which 

 should be designated as var. salmoides. The oldest name known to 

 apply to the Northern form is that of Bodianus achigan Eafinesque. 

 The Northern form may therefore be designated as Micropterus sal- 

 moides var. achigan, whenever it is deemed desirable to call attention 

 to these variations. 



The body is appreciably longer and slenderer in var. salmoides 

 than in var. achigan, the head being about 3 in length instead of 



* Contributions to N. A. Ichthyology, No. 3, p. 30. <Bulletin U. S. 

 National Museum, XII, 1878. 



