EL. Agassiz on the Ichthyological Fauna of Western America. 79 
from the Wabash, and also the Catostomus niger of Rafinesque 
and Catostomus Bubalus of Dr. Kirtland from the Ohio, but not 
Cat. Bubalus, Rafinesque, which is the type of the genus Ich- 
thyobus described in the following paragraph. I have another 
new species from the Osage River, sent me by Mr. George Stol- 
ley. This shows this type to be widely distributed in our west- 
ern waters; but thus far it has not been found in the Atlantic 
States. I have some doubts respecting the nomenclature of these 
species which are rather difficult to solve. It will be seen upon 
reference to Rafinesque’s Ichthyologia Ohiensis, p. 55 and 56, 
that he mentions two species of his subgenus Ichthyobus, one of 
which he calls C. Bubalus, and the other C. niger; the second 
he has not seen himself, but describes it on the authority of Mr. 
Audubon as “entirely similar to the common Buffalo fish, his 
C. Bubalus, but larger, weighing sometimes upwards of fifty 
pounds.” Dr. Kirtland, on the other hand, describes the C. Bu- 
balus as the largest species found in the western waters, and adds 
that the young is nearly elliptical in its outline aud is often sold 
in the market as a distinct species, under the name of Buffalo 
Perch. If there was only one species of Buffalo in those waters 
nerically from the broader, high-backed 
being the smaller species, I take it to be Rafinesqne’s C. Bubalus, 
the type of his genus Ichthyobus, which is more fully charac- 
terised below, whilst the larger species, Rafinesque’s C. niger, 
can be no other than Dr. Kirtland’s C. Bubalus, “the largest spe- 
cies of the western waters.”’ It seems therefore hardly avoidable 
to retain the name of C. niger or rather Bubalichthys niger for 
the common Buffalo, though Rafinesque, who first named that 
sh, never saw it, or if he saw it mistook it for his own Bubalus, 
and though Dr. Kirtland, who correctly describes and figures it, 
names it C. Bubalus, for such is the natural result to which the 
history of the successive steps in our investigation of these fishes 
le But our difficulties here are not yet at an end. Among 
the splendid collections L have received from Dr: Rauch, I found 
two perfectly distinct species of Bubalichthys, one with a large 
mouth, and the other with a small mouth, and one of Irhthyobus, 
ving together in the Mississippi River, in the neighborhood of 
ington, lowa, and the next question, probably never to be 
9 
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3 
=] 
= 
2 
= 
ca 
—) 
2 
a. 
.* Dr. Kirtland and Dr. Storer, who follows him, are certainly mistaken in refer- 
ring C. niger of Raf, to Cat, elongatus of Lesueur, as the description in the Ichthy- 
ologia Ohiensis clearly shows. 
