14 Book of the Black Bass. 



and to a misleading reprint of Lacepede's Natural History 

 of Mstes, concluded that we could still retain our nomen- 

 clature of the black bass species, viz : Micropterus salmoides 

 for the small-mouth, and Micropterus pallidus for the large- 

 mouth, for reasons that it is not necessary to repeat here. 

 This view was acquiesced in by Dr. Jordan, though he 

 admitted in the paper referred to that ".the specific name 

 dolomieu was the first ever distinctly applied to our small- 

 mouth black bass," and that in the figure of Bose's Ldbrus 

 salmoides "the mouth is drawn large, and if we must 

 choose, the large-mouth is best represented;" also that in 

 the museum at Paris the name salmoides was fully adopted' 

 for that species. 



I was convinced that the estimate of the black bass 

 species as entertained by Dr. Vaillant was correct, and that 

 dolomieu for the small-mouth, and salmoides for the large- 

 mouth black bass, were more in accordance with the evi- 

 dence set forth in Dr. Jordan's paper, than our accepted 

 nomenclature, based as it was upon the conflicting testi- 

 mony of Cuvier and Valenciennes, who embraced every 

 thing luiown of the black bass, in their day, in their Grystes 

 salmoides, except Huro nigricans, and had it not been for 

 the gap in its dorsal fin, the inference is, they would have 

 included that also. I do not make this statement unguard- 

 edly, or disrespectfully, for while I venerate the name of 

 Cuvier, I am convinced that he failed to discriminate be- 

 tween the two species of black bass. 



But let us begin at the beginning. 



Now, if we discard both the description and figure of 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes' Grystes salmoides, we have left 

 (ignoring for the time both Eafinesque and Le Sueur) 

 only Lac6pede's Labrus salmoides and Micropterus 

 dolomieu. 



