PERCIDJE. 197 



AOANTHOPTERYGII. PERCID^E. 



THE GROWLER. 



Gristes Salmoeides; Auctorum. 



The White Salmon; Smith's History of Virginia — T«e Trout; Carolina Pro' 



vincialism. 



This fish, in general form, closely corresponds with that last de- 

 scribed. It has the same gibbous back, with the lateral line following 

 the dorsal curve, and the same' protruded lower jaw. Its teeth are set 

 minutely in broad bands or patches. The operculum has two mode- 

 rate points. 



Its color is deep greenish brown, with a bluish black spot on the 

 point of the operculum. When young it has twenty-five or thirty lon- 

 gitudinal brownish bands, which become effaced by age. 



The first dorsal fin has ten spines, the second thirteen or fourteen 

 soft rays ; the pectorals sixteen soft rays ; the ventrals one spine and 

 five soft rays ; the anal three spines and eleven or twelve soft rays ; 

 the caudal fin, which is slightly lunate, has seventeen soft rays. 



There may, perhaps, be two distinct varieties of this fish. It has 

 been taken in the waters of Western New York, in the Wabash in 

 Indiana, and abundantly in Carolina, where it attains to the length of 

 two feet, and is considered an excellent fish, passing,- as well as 

 another fish of the same family, the Carolina Weak-fish, Otolithus 

 Carolinmsis, under the misnomer of Trout. I am inclined to believe 

 that this fish is also known as the Welchman in the inland waters of 

 North Carolina. It is also the "Salmon of the Susquehannah. 



Before passing on to the next species I will observe that I consider 

 the proper classical name of the Black Bass of the St. Lawrence deci- 

 dedly to be Gristes — the genus Huro not having been by any means 

 satisfactorily defined. For that of Centrarchus is distinguished by 

 having many spinous rays to the ventral fin, while the genus Gristes 

 has but three, Perca two, and Lucioperca only one — this affording a 

 broad and clear distinction, and being that on which Agassiz founds tha 

 subgenus in question. 



