388 EXPLOEATIONS ACROSS THE GEEAT BASIN OF UTAH. 



and of a strong horizontal spine at the angle of the preoperculum, above which the 

 margin is pectinated. 



The next species in order, Labrax Japonicus of Cuvier and Valenciennes, is the type 

 of the genus Lateolabrax of Bleeker,* which is widely separated from Labrax by the 

 absence of any teeth on the tongue, the increased number of its vertebrae, &c. In the 

 plectroid armature of the operculum, it however resembles that genus. 



The last species, Labrax mucronatus, is also now considered as the type of a new 

 genus, for which the name Morone is accepted. Its generic characters and affinities 

 will be given at length in a subsequent portion of this memoir. 



Of the seven species referred by Cuvier and Valenciennes to the genus Labrax, five 

 are thus seen to belong to different genera. Nor do any of these genera appear to be 

 unnecessary; but, on the contrary, all of them are well distinguished from each other 

 by characters that ichthyologists must admit are of importance: two of the species, 

 indeed, that were referred to the genus by the French naturalists, do not agree with 

 their diagnosis of that genus, and it is doubtful, indeed, whether they have any near 

 relations with the others. It is not in disparagement of those celebrated and able men 

 that these remarks have been made. The progress of scientific discovery and the 

 examination of better materials have enabled their successors to discover the errors 

 of the founders of modern ichthyology. None could have performed the work at that 

 day better than they. 



Having long since, from an examination of the descriptions of various authors, 

 been aware of the confusion and uncertainty in which our American species of the 

 Cuvierian Labrax were enveloped, I believed that it might be a useful task to attempt 

 the elucidation of the genus. The results of the investigations undertaken therefor 

 have been published, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia for April, 1860, as a "Monograph of the Genus Labrax of Cuvier." 



Most of our general remarks are reproduced, with many additional ones, in the 

 present report. The nominal American species admitted by Drs. De Kay and Storer 

 in the genus Labrax amount to seven, and another specific name has been since added 

 by Filippi, an Italian naturalist. It has been attempted to demonstrate, in our mono- 

 graph of the genus, that all of those nominal species are referable to three true ones. 

 Three of the synonyms apply to one species, and four to another. 



Besides the species that have been attributed to the genus by Richardson, De Kay, 

 and Filippi, several others have been described under that name by modern naturalists. 

 Dr. Charles Girard has noticed two of these in the "Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia" under the names Labrax fiebulosm and L. cla- 

 thratus. He afterward constructed for them a new g enus, which he called Paralabrax, 



*By a misunderstanding, the name Percalabrax has been taken by some authorTas the generic denominationTof 

 this type. Cuvier (Hist, Nat. des Poissons, i, 55) has remarked, "Nous avons cru, pour plus de clarte, devoir donner 



an particular a chaqne sous-genre ; mais cenx qui tiondraient a conserve la nnmcnclatnn- d.«s -rands gen™ d« 



L ' '* l">'»«-"" "t placer ce nom sous-genenque entre deux parent!,-..-.. ....„„„■ Kim,..-,!, l\i fair en quelques ocea- 



p« exemple; Perca (labrax) lupus; Perca (labrax) lineata, etc." Temminck and Schlegel, following this 

 suggestion but omitting the parentheses, called the Perca (labrax) Japonicus, Perca-Labrax Japonic*, evidently accept- 

 views of Cuvier as to the limits of the subgenus Labrax. Bleeker, quite properly recognizing the generic pecul- 



