SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF THE BLACK BASS. 41 



French ichthyologists, who aided him in every possible 

 way. 



Professor Jordan afterwards published the result of his 

 researches, which forms one of the most valuable papers 

 yet added- to the literature of the Black Bass, and which I 

 take great pleasure in reproducing here:* 



In a recent visit to Europe the writer has had the privilege of ex- 

 amining the original types of certain species of American fishes de- 

 scribed by Dr. Albert Giinther from specimens in the British 

 Museum, and by Cuvier, Valenciennes, and others from examples in 

 the Museum at Paris. Notes on some of these, the proper identifi- 

 cation of which may affect our nomenclature, are here presented. 



1. MlCROPTEIUTS DOLOMIEU LacepMe. 

 Lacfipede, Histoire Katurelle ties Poissons iv, 324. 



The original type of this species is a large specimen, still in good 

 condition. Its peculiarity, which led to its separation from "Labrus" 

 by Lace*pede, is that the last rays of the dorsal are detached from 

 the others, and somewhat distorted, the result of some accident to 

 the fish while young. The injury to the specimen is therefore not a 

 museum mutilation, as I had heretofore understood, but a healed 

 wound. This specimen belongs to the southern variety of the small- 

 mouthed Black Bass, recognized by me (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, 

 1878, p. 30) as Micropterus salmoides var. sahnoides. Prof. Vaillant 

 recognizes this form provisionally (MSS. Mission Scientifique au 

 Mexique) as a distinct species (Micropterus dolomieu Lac.) from the 

 northern form, but the differences seem to me to have no more than 

 varietal value. 



As shown below, there is little doubt that the specific name dolo- 

 mieu is che first ever distinctly applied to our small-mouthed Black 



* Notes on Certain Typical Specimens of American Fishes in the 

 British Museum and in the Museum D'Histoire Naturelle at Paris. By 

 David S. Jordan, M. D. < Proceedings of United States National 

 Museum, II, 1879, pp. 218-226.. 

 4 



