HiSTOKr OF THE Black Bass. 9 



The complex species, Grystes salmoides, thus created by 

 Cuvier, was the origin and beginning of most of the subse- 

 quent confusion that attended the nomenclature of the 

 black bass species in America, inasmuch as he embraced 

 both the large-mouth and small-mouth basses in this name. 



In 184:2, Dr. James E. DeKay, in his " Fishes of Nevv 

 York," after reproducing Cuvier and Valenciennes' figures 

 and descriptions of Huro nigricans and Grystes salmoides, 

 described specimens of the small-mouth black bass under 

 two additional names: Centrarchus fasciatus and Cen- 

 trarchus ohscurus, claiming the latter as a new species. 



In the same year. Dr. Jared P. Kirtland adopted Cen- 

 trarchus fasciatus as synonymous with Le Sueur's and 

 Eafinesque's numerous descriptions of the small-mouth 

 species. 



In 1849, Dr. John E. Holbrook recorded the large-mouth 

 bass as Grystes salmoides (name only) in a catalogue of 

 fauna and flora in the " Statistics of Georgia." It will be 

 noticed that Dr. Holbrook thus considered Grystes sal- 

 moides to be the proper name of the large-mouth black bass, 

 or " trout," of Georgia. - 



In 1850, Prof. Louis Agassiz recognized the generic 

 identity of the former descriptions of the black bass by 

 Le Sueur, Cuvier and Valenciennes, and DeKay, and re- 

 tained the name Grystes for the same. 



In 1854, Prof. Agassiz obtained specimens of the large- 

 mouth bass from the Tennessee Eiver, near Huntsville, 



which the figure in Cuvier and Valenciennes' " Histoire Naturelle 

 des Poissons " was taken, are both large-mouth black bass, one 

 being fully eight, and the other about six inches in length. The 

 four specimens from the Wabash Kiver sent to the museum by 

 Le Sueur are all small-mouth bass, the largest being at least 

 fifteen inches in length, and the others about one-third as long. 



