790 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISI^AND FISHERIES. [44] 



" Agassiz,*^ it is true, has given to us an elaborate account of Lepi- 

 dostens, and the earlier description of Polypterus by H. Miiller^'' has 

 been supplemented by Dr. Traquair's^^ opportune paper; while to Dr. 

 Giinther and Prof. Huxley ^^ we are indebted for exhaustive accounts of 

 the skeleton of Oeratodus." 



"On the other hand, I am not aware that, beyond the more or less brief 

 accounts to be found in John H. Miiller's Vergleichende Anatomie der 

 Myxinoiden^^ we have any detailed descriptions of Spatularia, Acipenser, 

 or Amia; and the anatomical student who may wish to acquire any com- 

 plete knowledge of these genera must content himself with the above- 

 mentioned references, or with such facts as he may be able to glean from 

 such anatomical text-books as Huxley's Manual of Vertehrata, Owen's 

 Comparative Anatomy, or the Grundzilge der VergleicJienden Anatomie of 

 Gegenbaur. More especially is this true of Amia. The zoological char- 

 acters of this genus have been described by several Zoologists. Vogt^* 

 first detected its true position among the Ganoids and removed it fram 

 the Olupeoid Teleostei, with which it had been placed by Miiller ; ^^ and 

 HyrtP^ and Franque^' have described the generative organs and visceral 

 anatomy. But I am not aware that there exists any connected account 

 of the osteology of the skull of this genus, or that the skull has been 

 figured." 



Jordan and Gilbert place the Amias in the order Halecomorphi, and 

 the single species known, the subject of this paper, Amia calva, in 

 the only family in the order, Amiida3. These authors give as the geo- 

 graphical range of this fish the great lakes and sluggish waters from 

 Minnesota to Virginia, Florida, and Texas. In describing the external 

 appearance of Amia calva, they state that it is of a " dark olive or 

 blackish above, paler below ; sides with traces of dark reticulate mark- 

 ings ; lower jaw and gular plate often with round blackish spots ; fins 

 mostly dark, somewhat mottled. Male with a round black spot at base 

 of caudal above, this surrounded by an orange or yellowish shade. In 

 the female this spot is wanting." ^^ 



On the 12th of February, 1883, I took in a seine near New Orleans, 

 La., four specimens of Amia. Two of these were alike ; they were very 

 dark above, the ocellation at the base of the tail, large, very black, and 

 the emargination a brilliant buff color. But what was still more strik- 



''9 Agassiz, Poiss, Foss, Tom. 11. 



^Abliandl, A. K., Wiss. ; Berlin, 1844. 



81 Journal of Anatomy, Vol. IV. 



62 Phil. Trans. 1871; 5 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876. 



^^Vergl. Anat. d. Myx., Berlin, 1835. 



^Annates des Sciences Naturelles, Tom. xxiv, Heart and alimentary canal figured. 



*>* Miiller's paper, ^' 8ur les Ganoides et sur las classification naturelle des Poissons,'^ 

 is translated by Vogt in tlio xxv. vol. Ann. Sci. Nat. 



1^6 A. K. Wiss. Wien., 1855. 



^'' Amice calvoe Anaiomia, Berlin, 1847. 



68 Jordan & Gilbert. Syn. Fishes of North Amer. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No, 16, 

 1882. 



