220 L. Agassiz onthe Ichihyological Faunaof Western America. 
Pimephales, Raf. 
This genus was established by Rafinesque for the reception 
of asmall species little known then as now to anglers 
single specimen from which he drew the generic as well as spe- 
cific characters of this fish was taken at Lexington, Ky., witha 
small hook. The peculiar features of the fish mentioned by 
Rafinesque in his description, leave no doubt respecting its iden- 
tity. The large irregular black spots of the anterior base of the 
dorsal, its first, simple, shorter, obtuse, hard ray, together with 
the blackish head and blunt snout, readily distinguish it from any 
other fish of the same family in the vicinity from which it is de- 
scribed. ‘The generic characters as given by this naturalist, are: 
Body oblong, thick, and scaly, vent posterior, nearer to the tail, 
ers scaleless, fleshy all over, even over the gill covers, rounded, 
convex above and short. Mouth terminal, small, toothless, with 
hard, cartilaginous i Opercle double, three. branchial rays. 
Nostrils simple, dorsal fin opposite the abdominals, with the first 
ray simple and eshing eas. Abdominal fins with eight rays. 
This generic diagnosis exhibits most of the defects of dhe greater 
number of such descri tions. ‘T’o mention that the body is scaly, 
the head scaleless, the mouth toothless, the branchiostegal rays 
three in number is only to repeat as characters of one what in 
reality belong to all the genera of the family. I am sorry to add 
that this practice of referring at random to families, a ie or 
Species the characters observed, is continued to this day by the 
magority of our Naturalists. * Most of their —— a 
viduals without much Hisesnae 
What Rafinesque says of the nostrils being simple 1 is absolutely 
false, as in all Cyprinoids there are two openings of the nostrils 
on each side of the head; the upper-one is crescent-shaped, the 
lower or anterior one oval ; both close together. 
The name proposed by Rafinesque i is abbreviated from Pimele- 
kephale, which means fat-head, an allusion to the round fat head. 
In the Ichthyologia Ohiensis, Rafinesque gives Flat- Head as 
the meaning of the name he proposes for the genus: but this 
is evidently a misprint for fat-hea 
This genus is very closely related to Campostoma, in which how- 
ever the scales on the back in front of the dorsal are as large and 
as well arranged as those behing this fin, while in Pimepheles 
they are very much reduced in size, crowded and irregular in 
for 
m and arrangement in front of the dorsal. The spine in 
dorsal, as well as the rounded form of all the fins are also ¢ 
acters which distinguish this genus from Campostoma. But what 
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