Notice of the Report on the Fishes of New York. 277 
its discoverer, Mr. Charles H. Olmsted, of East Hartford, Conn. 
Dr. Dekay observes, ‘it approaches the genus Etheostoma in the 
form of its head, but its opercules are said not to be scaly.” In 
this species the preoperculum is destitute of scales, although the 
artist in the figure before us has pretty liberally distributed them 
over both the gill-covers ; and the lower portion of the opercu- 
lumis naked. Such appearances would almost justify Rafinesque 
when he formed his genus, to say the “ gill-covers without scales.” 
The genus Perca is described as having bony opercula, and the 
genus Labrax differs from Perca in having scaled opercules; still 
the upper portion of the opercula of the Perches exhibit a greater 
or less number of well marked scales. If Dr. Dekay is dissatisfied 
with Rafinesque’s genus, I am unwilling he should thus presump- 
tuously attempt to expunge my specific name; personal friend- 
ship, as well as the most common rules of scientific etiquette, 
prompt me to act on the defensive.* 
Pomotis appendix, (p. 32.)—Inasmuch as one of the charac- 
ters of the genus Pomotis is “opercule with an elongated mem- 
brane at its angle,” Mitchill’s specific name of the fish here de- 
scribed is evidently inappropriate, and it will undoubtedly be 
changed by some future ichthyologist who shall have an oppor- 
tunity of examining it. 
Uranidea quiescens, (p. 61.)—About a year and a half since, 
Mr. Olmsted, of whom I have previously spoken, sent me a spe- 
cimen of what appeared to him to be a new species. I at once 
recognized it to be the Cottus viscosus of Haldeman. 'That spe- 
cimen is now in your cabinet. It is, in the volume before us, 
described as a new species under a new genus.t} 
Gasterosteus quadracus, (p. 67.)—Dr. Dekay in describing 
this species remarks, “‘ Dr. Storer describes a membrane attached 
to the ventral spine, which escaped my notice.” In a living 
specimen now swimming before me while I am writing this no- 
* Since these remarks were penned, Mr. Olmsted assures me that he examined 
in the state collection at Albany, with Prof. Emmons, the gentleman who discov- 
ered it, the identical specimen which Dr. Dekay describes in his report as the 
Boleosoma tessellatum, and that it is the same species that he sent me, and which 
I described two years since as the Etheostoma Olmstedi. 
+t Mr. Olmsted also states that the specimen which Dr. Dekay calls Uranidea 
guiescens, was examined by him in the same collection, in company with Mr, Hal- 
deman, who unhesitatingly pronounced it to be his Cottus viscosus. 
