120 TELEOSTEI: ACANTHOPTERI. — XX. 
Chicago. A familiar and active inhabitant of clear brooks, defend- 
ing its nests with great spirit. “A very beautiful and compact fish, 
perfect in all its parts, looking like a brilliant coin fresh from the 
mint.” (Lat., gibbous.) 
157. MICROPTERUS Lacépéde. Brack Bass. (jtxpés, 
small; wrepév, fin.) 
a. Mouth moderate, the maxillary in adult not extending beyond eye; scales 
small, about 11-74-17; young more or less barred or spotted, never with 
a black lateral band. 
320. M. dolomieu Lacépéde. SmMALL-MoUTHED Brack Bass. 
Body ovate-oblong, growing deep with age; scales on the cheek 
small, in about 17 rows; D. less deeply notched than in the next; 
the ninth spine about half as long as the longest. Coloration vari- 
able, the young dull golden-green, with darker spots on sides which 
tend to cluster in short vertical bars; 3 bronze bands across cheeks; 
C. yellowish, next black, with a white tip; D. with bronze spots. 
Adult nearly uniform olive-green. Head 34; depth 3}. D. X, 13. 
A. III, 10. Scales 10 or 11-72 to 75-17. L. 1 to 2 feet; weight 
2to 7 pounds. St. Lawrence River to Dakota, S. to 8. C., Ala., 
and Ark., preferring clear and running streams; hence less common 
S. than the next, and for the same reason usually considered the 
better game-fish. “The Black-bass is eminently an American fish; 
he has the faculty of asserting himself and of making himself com- 
pletely at home wherever placed. He is plucky, game, brave, un- 
yielding to the last, when hooked. He has the arrowy rush and 
vigor of a trout, the untiring strength and bold leap of a salmon, 
while he has a system of fighting tactics peculiarly his own. I con- 
sider him inch for inch and pound for pound the gamest fish that 
swims.” (J..A. Henshall.) (To M. Dolomieu, a scientist of Paris.) 
aa. Mouth very large, the maxillary in the adult extending beyond the eye; 
scales rather large, about 7-68-16; last spines of D. very short, so that 
the fin is almost divided into two; young with a blackish lateral 
band. 
321. M. salmoides (Lacépéde). LarGEe-MoUuTHED BLACK 
Bass. GREEN Bass. Osweco Bass. Bayou Bass. Body 
rather deeper and more compressed than in the preceding, growing 
deeper with age; scales on cheek large, in about 10 rows; 9th D. 
spine not half length of longest. Color dark green, silvery below ; 
sides with a broad blackish band in young, with some dark spots 
above and below it; three dark stripes across cheeks; C. pale at 
base and tip, mesially dusky. Adult dull green, nearly plain. Head 
34; depth 3. D. X,13. A.TII,11. Seales 8-68-16. L. 1 to 24 
feet; weight 3 to 8 pounds. Dakota to N. Y., S. to Florida and 
Mexico; everywhere abundant, preferring lakes, bayous, and slug- 
gish waters. Variable. (Lat., Salmo, salmon; ei8os, like, which it 
is not.) 
