20 Book of the Black Bass. 



tain which reference to Ldbrus salmoides was the correct 

 one. His characteristic reply was: 



" In answering your questions I have struck a mare's nest ; 

 .¥. dolomieu. Vol. iv, 325, 1802; L. salmoides, Vol. iv, 716, 1802; 

 the latter being in a supplement, which, in some of the reprints, 

 is restQied to its proper place in the genus Labrus in Vol. iii. 

 From this you will see that dolomieu has priority over salmoides. 

 I still believe that salmoides was intended for the large-mouth 

 bass, but don't know that I can prove it." 



Thus, after the lapse of four-fifths of a century, the 

 small-mouth black bass recovered the name to which it was 

 clearly entitled, Microptei-us dolomieu; truth and justice 

 prevailed; Lacepede and his illustrious friend Dolomieu 

 were vindicated. 



American ichth3'ologists, it will be seen, had been mis- 

 led by using a reprint, instead of the original edition, of 

 Lacepede's work, which fact, together with an ill-placed 

 faith in Cuvier, led to the confusion of the nomeiiclature 

 of the black bass species as related in the preceding pages. 



Perhaps it will now be well to refer to some objections 

 heretofore raised to the generic title Micropterus, and the 

 specific appellations salmoides and dolomieu^ on the score 

 of irrelevancy. I might say, however, that priority, like 

 charity, covers a multitude of sins.* 



* To those anglers who are better posted in the technical terms 

 of the great American " game " introduced to the nobility of Eng- 

 land by General Schenck, than in the technical terms introduced 

 here in reference to the nomenclature of the great American 

 " game-iish," I need only say that Micropterus, and the specific 

 names dolomieu and sahnoides. " hold the age " over all other 

 synonyms that have taken a hand, from time to time, in the " little 

 game." This comparison may be more striking than analogical, 

 but as Jack Bunsby would say, its force " lies in the application 

 of it," 



