HiSTOEY 01" THE BLACK BaSS. 5 



of the small-mouth species, but, unfortunately, it was an 

 abnormal specimen, with a deformed dorsal fin, several of 

 the last rays having been apparently bitten off and toni 

 loose from the others when the fish was young, presenting 

 the appearance of a separate small fin. In conformity 

 with this accidental peculiarity, Laeepede named it 

 Micropterus dolomieu — Dolomieu's " small-fin " — sup- 

 posing that the little fin was a permanent and distinctive 

 feature, and of generic value; he accordingly created the 

 new genus Micropterus^ and named the type in honor of 

 his friend Dolomieu, a well-known French mineralogist, 

 for whom the mineral dolomite was also named.* 



In 1817, C. S. Eafinesque, another French naturalist, 

 then living in America, procured specimens, apparently of 

 the small-mouth bass, in the region of Lake Champlain, 

 which he named Bodianus achigan, from the Canadian 

 vulgar name of I'achigan. He either failed to recognize, 

 or repudiated, Lacepede's former descriptions of Ldbrus 

 salmoides and Micropterus dolomieu. During the next few 

 years, from 1818 to 1830, while collecting in the Ohio 

 River and its tributaries, in Kentucky, Eafinesque took and 

 described specimens of the small-mouth black bass, at dif- 

 ferent stages of its growth, as Calliurus punctulatus, Lepo- 

 mis trifasciata, Lepomis flexuolaris, Lepomis salmonea, 

 Lepomis notata, and Etheostoma calliura, and specimens of 

 the large-mouth bass he described as Lepomis pallida. 



In 1823, Charles A. Le Sueur, also a French naturalist, 

 while in this country described and named specimens, of 



* In 1887 I personally examined this specimen in the Museum 

 of Natural History in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. It is a fine 

 example, about a foot in length, and is in a remarkably good state 

 of preservation. It is undoubtedly a small-mouth black bass. 



