Cope.] 474 (June 7, 
in many of our older States. The execution of such laws is, however, the 
important point, and the destruction by officers, of the spring traps and 
weirs in the Neuse, Cape Fear, Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, every spring, 
at the time of running of the fishes, would allow of the escape of immense 
numbers of them, before the traps could be repaired. 
70. PrycHOsTOMUS ERYTHURUS, Raf. 
Ichthyologia Ohiensis, p. 59. Ptychostomus duguesnei, Agass part. Am 
Journ. Sci. Arts., XIX 90. Cope Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1868, 236. 
This species is probably the most widely distributed as well as one of 
the largest of the genus. 
The form is somewhat compressed, but the dorsal line is not much 
arched ; the head is of medium size, entering the length 4.5 to 4.66 times. 
The end of the muzzle is nearly vertical in profile. The lips are full, the 
posterior truncate or openly emarginate posteriorly ; the plicate coarse. 
Eye 4.5 times in Jength ; 1.66 lines in interorbital width. Depth of body 
three and two-thirds times in length (exclus. caudal). Top of head nearly 
plane. Scales 5——412——4. Radii D. XIII, V. 9., dorsal with straight 
superior outline. Color silvery, rosy and gray above; dorsal caudal and 
anal fins orange. 
The above description is taken from one of several specimens from the 
Youghiogheny River, in Western Pennsylvania. I have procured other 
and similar individuals from the Holston and French Broad Rivers, in 
Tennessee. It is, as Rafinesque observes, a most abundant sucker in all 
the rivers tributary to the Mississippi from the East, and is that which is 
known everywhere as ‘‘red horse.’’ It is the common fish-food of the 
people, sharing the distinction with the ‘‘blue cat.’’ Ichthaelurus coeru- 
lescens. It reaches as large a size as any species of the genus and I have 
seen them of six and eight pounds. The largest I have heard of, was 
caught in the French Broad, and weighed twelve. 
With various authors, I have formerly regarded it as the Pt. duqdesnet 
of Leseuer, but I suspect it to be distinct, as already indicated by Rafines- 
que. The characters of the latter are pointed out below. 
A species resembling the present, as well as the Pt. robustus, bears the 
name of ‘‘red-horse,’’ in the country of North Carolina, east of the 
mountains, but whether the same or not, the present inaccessibility of 
my specimens, prevents me from deciding. A specimen from the Catawba 
of seven lb. weight had a relatively larger head, and was otherwise stouter 
than the above described. D. 1.12; scales 6—43—5. The fish is common 
in that river, and equally so in the Yadkin. Those from the latter have 
D. XII; muzzle not prominent; head and body rather elongate; shaded 
with yellow, particularly on sides of head; fins orange. It will be observed 
that the eastern fish agree in having D. 12 soft rays. 
71. PrycHosTOMUS LACHRYMALIS, Cope. 
Spec. nov. 
This species is quite near the last, and may at some future day be shown 
to be only a local variety of it, but in this case Pt. macrolepidotus must 
