SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF THE BLACK BASS. 57 



And yet we have deceived ourselves, with all this evi- 

 dence staring us in the face, with the flimsy delusion that 

 Bosc's drawing of the "Carolina Trout" was a small- 

 mouthed Bass, simply because Cuvier pronounced it sy- 

 nonymous with Cichla variabilis Le Sueur and Micropterus 

 dolomieu Lacepde. 



Presuming that I have proved the names Micropterus 

 dolomieu for the small-mouthed Black Bass, and Micropterus 

 salmoides for the large-mouthed Black Bass to be rightly 

 bestowed, and the names by which the two species should 

 hereafter be designated, perhaps it will be well to refer to 

 some objections heretofore raised to the generic appellation 

 Micropterus, and the specific titles salmoides and dolomieu, 

 on the score of irrelevancy. I can do no better than to 

 refer the reader to Professor Jordan's paper on this sub- 

 ject, on page 31. I might add, however, that priority, like 

 charity, covers a multitude of sins.* 



Micropterus (little-fin) is really less objectionable than 

 any of the names yet proposed for the genus, for it has, 

 comparatively, smaller fins than any of the related genera. 



Calliurus (beautiful tail) is not at all characteristic of 

 the genus, though the young of the small-mouthed species, 

 in certain localities, has the tail marked as described by 

 Rafinesque : " base yellow, middle* blackish, tip white." 



Grystes (growler) is certainly not applicable in this sense. 



* To those anglers who are better posted in the technical terms of the 

 great American "game" introduced to the nobility of England by Gen- 

 eral Schenck, than in the technical terms introduced here in .reference to 

 the nomenclature of the great American " game-fish," I need only say 

 that Micropterus, and the specific names dolomieu and salmoides, " hold the 

 age" over all other synonyms that have taken a hand, from time to time, 

 in the " little game." This comparison may be more striking than ana- 



