340 



FOREST AND STREAM* 



side ; it held twelve frames, each carrying 3,000 eggs. With, 

 ss you see, a flight knowledge of how the eggs came over, 

 and hearing for the first time of what had heen done in France 

 toward bringing them safely, yon may imagine how amused 

 1 was when I read the above quotation in the Field. 



From all of which it will be seen that at least one gold 

 medal of the Acclimatization Society has gone to the wrong 

 place. We do not know that the cause of American fish cul- 

 ture or of American ingenuity, as applied to fish culture, will 

 suffer for all that, nor do we apprehend that Mr. Mather's 

 efforts to transport his salmon eggs across the ocean will be 

 any the less energetic or less successful ; but if more medals 

 are to be given it might answer the purpose as well perhaps 

 hereafter to give them where they belong. 



Wisconsin— Madison, Nov. 2.— Editor Forest and Stream : 

 On the 10th of December the State Fish Commissioners will 

 meet in Milwaukee for the purpose of consulting with the city 

 authorities iu the feasibility of establishing a permanent fish 

 hatchery. Previous experiments have proven thai the small 

 amount" of money thus far annually spent in pisiculture has 

 not. been in vain. At the Milwaukee hatchery activity pre- 

 vails. Superintendent Welcher reports that he has finished 

 taking lake trout eggs, and has about four millions eggsiu the 

 boxes. At Saugatuck and Escanaba men are at work secur- 

 ing ten millions of eggs for the Milwaukee hatchery. It is 

 expected that two millions of whiteflsh will behatched at Madi- 

 son ; also, half a million of brook trout. At Madison every- 

 thing is in first-class order. One hundred and fifty thousand 

 California salmon have just been batched, which are to be 

 distributed throughout the State. The following is the new 

 law takiDg effect from November 1 .- "Any person who shall 

 catch or take any fish from the waters of Lake Michigan 

 within this State, or of the east side of Green Bay, with any 

 trap or pound-net, the meshes of the pot of which are less 

 than one inch and a half from knot to knot, or, technical 

 language, of a pot less than three-inch meshes, shall be 

 punished by fine not exceeding $10 for each day's unlawful 

 use of such net." The prompt enforcement of this law wil 

 save millions of fish which otherwise would be ruthlessly 

 desroyed. Rover. 



English Fish Cultdkk in 1G08. — In 166S letters patent 

 were granted to " Walter TJnderhill the elder, Walter Under- 

 bill the younger, and Samuel Walton," for " a way for pre- 

 serving and bringing of salmon alive and well conditioned to 

 the City of London and other places, from Newcastle and 

 Berwick and other places, being their own invention, and 

 never before used or piactic<d in this the realm." Unfortu- 

 nately no specification has been preserved of this interesting 

 discovery. We hardly see the direction the invention could 

 hive taken, bearing in mind the difficulties of traveling. See- 

 ing that modern pisciculturists would be sorely tried if they 

 tried to do the like now with salmon in any number, a de- 

 tailed account would be very interesting. — London Country. 

 > ■»■ » 



Sevkbn Tbotjt in .New Zkaland. — A correspondent of a 

 London paper, writing from Otago, says : " Trout fishing is 

 now fairly established in some of the creeks and rivers, and 

 really good sport can be had. The trout were originally got 

 from the river Severn, and have increased wonderfully • they 

 grow much larger than any trout I ever saw in England. I 

 have caught one myself of over 81bs., and dozens between 

 that weight and 41bs. It is an iveryday occurrence to catch 

 them 41bs. or 51bs. Any passable sort of fisherman should get 

 a b itket of from ten to thirty fish a day, weighing from half 

 a pound upward ; it is not allowable to take fish under Beven 

 inches long." 



Gratuitous Distribution of Salmon Ova in Germany. 

 — The German Fischerei-Vcrein announces its intention again 

 this year to distribute impregnated salmon ova gratuitously 

 to all existing piscicultural establishments throughout the 

 German Empire that may care to apply for them. Last year 

 more than two million impregnated salmon ova were distrib- 

 uted among the several bodies applying for them, in addition 

 to about. 91)0,000 grayling ova and many thousands of various 

 Ooregonidm. 



• — .»■ . 



AimnoiAi. Bkkedlsg of Stijhgeon. — The efforts made 

 Inis year by the Rendsburg and Magdeburg Fisoherei-Verein 

 to carry on the artificial breeding of sturgeon have completely 

 failed. Among the fish secured by the Rendsburg Society 

 very few indeed were females, and not one of these contained 

 roe. The Magdeburg Society were equally unfortunate. 

 > — .♦. — . 



— Last June Mr. D. G. Colwell procured several thousand 

 young eels and placed them in the mid pond. They were 

 about two inches long at lhat time. Last Saturday, while 

 werking in the mill race, he caught one which was over seven 

 inches in length, showing that tbey have grown about one 

 inch per month since placed in the pond. In about a year 

 from now we may expect good eel fishing in the Shiawassee. 

 —Fenton Independent. 



1 — -•^— . 



—Palmer & Som, of Boscobel, Wis., advertise trout eggs 

 for safe. 



fistorg. 



v 



For Forest and Stream and Bod and Ohm. 

 SCIENTIFIC NAMES OF THE BLACK 

 BASS. 



SINCE the publication of the name Mieropterus pallidum 

 (Raf.), Gill and Jordan, as a substitute for Micropterus 

 nigricans lor the scientific name of the large-mouthed black 

 bass, I have received numerous congratulations, verbal and 

 written, irom brother fishermen on the appropriateness of the 

 name " selected," and I presume that my colleague in this 

 matter, Professor Gill, has had a similar experience. Lately, 

 a correspondent of FoafiBT and Stream, Mr. A. F. Clapp, 

 suggests that the name MiefQpterUt salmoitles be likewise 

 "stamped out " lo make room for souie more appropriate ap- 

 pellation: It feems timely, therefore, that we should " rise 

 and explain." 



The name Micropterus pallidas is not a name of our own se- 

 lection, hut a name which bv the laws of scientific nomencla- 

 ture we are bound to use. By the operation of these laws 



every genus must bear the oldest (generic) name bestowed on 

 any of its members, unless this name has been previously 

 used for something else, or is glaringly false (not simply ir- 

 revelant. or inappropriaie), or is otherwise ineligible; every 

 species must bear the first (specific) name imposed upon it 

 (unless, as before, it be for on r ason or another ineligible), 

 and the proper name of any species must be made by com- 

 bining the above-mentioned specific and generic names. 



Thisis the law on the subject, and, as elsewhere, the law is 

 usually, though not always, simply right. We accept many 

 meaningless or even objectionable names to avoid the confu- 

 sion attendant upon arbitrary changes. Were it not for these 

 rules science would ever suffer, as it has much suffered in the 

 past from the efforts of the improvers of nomenclature— men 

 who invent new names for old objects far the purpose of see- 

 ing their own personal designations. Smith, Jones, Brehm, 

 Retchcnow, or what not, after tbem. In the words of "a 

 right Sagamann," John Casein : " There is not, evidently, any 

 other course consistent with justice and the plainest princi- 

 ples of right and morality, and. in fact, no alternative, unless, 

 indeed, au operator is disposed to set himself up for the first 

 of all history, as is said of an early Chinese emperor. The 

 latter course, in a degree, singular as it may appear, is not 

 entirely unknown to naturalists, especially to those who re- 

 gard science as a milch cow rather than as a transcendent 

 goddess, a distinction in classification first made by the great 

 poet Schiller." 



Now, as to the names of our species of bass, I take it for 

 granted that the, reader knows (a) what a black bass is and 

 what it is not (b) ; that there are two species of black bass, 

 the large-mouthed aud the small-mouthed, the latter being 

 with most anglers the black bass par excellence, the other the 

 off horse, and (c) what the difference between them is. In 

 any event you will find it all written in Professor Gill's most 

 excellent paper, " On the Species of the Genus Micropterus" 

 in the " Proceedings of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science in 1873." 



The earliest published notice of a black bass with ascienlific 

 name was of one of the small-mouthed kind, sent to Lacepede 

 from South Carolina. This specimen bore with it the name 

 of " trout," after the abominable, contemptible, pernicious 

 and otherwise detestable euBtom of our erring Southern 

 brethren of calling a black bass in the river, or a weakfish in 

 the sea, a "trout." Now, we may presume that the great 

 French naturalist was puzzled by this name, and put on his 

 spectacles to see what in the world could be " trout-like " 

 about such a fish, with its coarse scales and spinous fins. To 

 him it looked more like a wrasse or cunner, Labrus, than a 

 trout; but no matter, it: must resemble a trout somehow or 

 the Americans would uot cull it so. So he put it down in his 

 great work as Labrus salmoid-es, the trout— like Labrus, to the 

 everlasting injury of the fish. The name is not only sense- 

 less, but had Latin, the proper form of the word being Bat- 

 monoides. 



Lacepede had another specimen of the black bass, without 

 label, and from an unknown locality, This one had the last 

 rays of the dorsal broken and torn loose from the rest, and 

 was otherwise in a forlorn condition, This specimen he con- 

 sidered as a genus distinct from the other, and ho gave it the 

 name of Mkropleius dolomuu — " Dolomteu's small-tin." Do 

 lomieu was a friend of Lacepede, who had had about as much 

 to do with the fish as George Washington or Victor Hugo. 

 No oue could tell, either from figure, or description, what this 

 Micropterus dolomuu was ; but Cuvier, thirty years later, 

 found the original type and pronounced it a black bass, in 

 poor condition, and declared that "the genus and species of 

 Micropterm ought to disappear from the catalogue of fishes." 



Thi-n the versatile and eccentric Professor Rafinesque ap- 

 in the scene, aud in rapid succession gave the small- 

 mouthed hi ;i enough for a whole family. First 

 lie called it /..'"hr;;;,"-, ,,',;/,!',;,, .-,7 being told that the Canadian 

 voyageura knew the fish as I'acliigan. Then afterward speci- 

 mens of different sizes appeared m punch 'm , 

 Lepomis ti ■/ I lari-s, Lepomis salmonea, 

 Lcpoiuh no! i Le Sueur 



with a lofty scorn foi Rafinesque and hisdoinga, named speci- 

 mens of different sizes, CicMa fusciata, Cichla oh 



Cichla minima. Lastly, Delvtiy, 'in 1S43, calledit Centrarckus 

 obscurus, and wu hope this may be the last. 



.Now the name satmcidea, being the oldest, is, of course, the 

 one to be adopted. Bui "stamp it, out." Is 



Micropterus dvbwtku anj better? Out with it! Micioplerus 

 achiyaii? Jus', as bad. " 1 fear that the "stamping out" pro- 

 cess would have to be continued too long. You may spell it 

 salvumeidesil you like, but' you. cannot 



Now for the large-mouihed bass. Tne oldest description 

 we find is that of a young specimen from the Ohio by Rafi- 

 nesque, iu 1820, us Lipurmti pallida. The description is poor 

 enough, and not altogether coriect, but the name is a happy 

 inspiration, as good as salmaides is bad. Soon after ( 1 822) 

 Le Sueur described the same fish from Florida as ('ic/ilu 

 Jtoridana, a name which would be well enough if it were con- 

 fined to the streams of the orange groves, but it seems rather 

 narrow in view of the [act that' the fish is found in Mexico 

 and Manitoba, and everywhere between. 



.Next, a specimen came to Cuvier and Valenciennes, under 

 the title of "Black Bass of Lake Huron." To theit eyes the 

 fiBh was black enough, but not a bass (/. e. Labrax), and they 

 called it Iluro nigricans, the " Black Huron," making a new 

 genus for it because their specimen had but six dorsal spines, 

 the last four having been broken off, leaving two dorsal fins. 

 The colored figure which they published remained a standing 

 puzzle for some time. 



In Dr. Rutland's private copy of his own fishes of Ohio he 

 had carefully drawn off and colored a copy of Cuvier's figure 

 of his Black Huron, and had all his life sought for such a fish 

 in the takes and never found it, About a year before his 

 death, Dr. Ktrtland asked me if I had ever seen thai fish or 

 could tell him what, it was. and I hud the pleasure of inform- 

 i , i l_' ! 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 . ■ ■ ralissed black bass, Next, in 1854, 



Professor Agasaiz, thinking that this fish in the Tennessee 

 Ht\er could sot b3 the same, as in Lake Hur n, called it 

 Grysles nobilin, e - r ' tiauie ejeomjh bul U4 years too fate, 

 in the same year. specimens fiom f'exas were Da I ■ 



..... ■:. "fluid aud Girard, bu the fish is lo aid in otner 

 sii eoms than the Kio Nueces. Tncu a meaty a id excellent 

 .vas given by Mr. Garnck in 1857, 

 chcl "■-- - ■ Biynonymy, but the disease has 



i,,- .,[.; o, and McBsrs. Vaillant and Bocourt 



of talis, v. _ w better, have 



as Li'jplitts trkulii and 1)1 1 

 ness a French naturalist, e.au engage in is that of ilesctiuing 



A. good share 1 

 netsome an resistance. 



Now in 1873 Prof. Gill, in his masterly review of these 

 species, followed the thread back only to Huro nigricans m 

 1828, and so called the big-mouthed black bass, as he was 

 bound to do. Micropterun nigricans. The names , 

 and pallidus were presumed by him lo refer to the other species, 

 for the r. ason lhat he. had never seen u big mouthed black 

 bass either from the Ohio River or from Florida. In 1876 

 Prof. Goode had collected it in Florida, and so ft It bound to 

 restorn Le Sueur's name and to call it Micropterus l?< 

 Iu 1ST" I called Professor Gill's attention to the fattt that 

 there were big-mouthed as well as small-mouthed black bass 

 in the streams where Rafinesque fished, and he agreed with 

 me at once that the LepomU pallida of Rafinesque was the big; 

 mouth, which is why the big-mouthed black base 

 bass, grass bass and bayou bass is Micropterus pallidus ( UaTi- 

 nesque), Gill and Jordan at present date, and such may it ever 

 remain. 



Now, as to the name of ihe genus itself, the difficulty is 

 just as great. The name Micropterun is unquestionably the 

 oldest. ° But (a) we are pea-haps not absolutely certai 

 original Micropterus dolomuu was a black bass at* all ; (ft) it 

 was described as distinct under the erroneous impression that 

 it had a little adipose fin behind the dorsal, and to) the name 

 (small fin) refers to this imaginary peculiarity, and is there 

 fore incorrect. 



On the other hand, the black bass really has smaller fins 

 than any of its relatives, and the name has therefore a certain 

 appropriateness. I think, with professor Gill, that it should 

 be retained, although Professor Cope aud others, as good 

 authority as we are, are inclined lo dumur. 



Next comes Oalluirus (beautiful tail), not a bad name, for 

 the young bass have the tail ornamented with black, white 

 and yellow, but not a very good name. Then come 

 (scaly opercles), previously applied to the sunfiehes, end there- 

 fore not usable for a bass. Then come Hafinesqn.es Aplitee, 

 Nemocampsis, Diioplites and Aplesum, unworthy of any atten- 

 tion, although for some reason Liojilites has kept up a Sort of 

 life, while the other three have wholly died. 



Next come the name Huro for the large-mouthed, and 

 Orystes for the small-mouthed. Of course the two do not be- 

 lODg to seperate genera. The name Orystes was 

 translation of the name Growler, under which name the black 

 bass was sent to the museum at Paris. Thus our two species 

 are often called iu foreign books the Black Huron (Iluro 

 nigricans), and the Salmon-formed Growler (Gryslei' salmoidcs). 

 The name Qrystes is a graceful one, and hits been used more 

 frequently than any other, but there areseven names ahead of 

 it on the record, and first come first served and synonymy 

 take the hindmost. 



The names Labrus, Jiodlanvs, Cichla ano Centrarckus be- 

 long to whoily different fishes, and were given by different 

 authors through mistakes as to the relationship of the black 

 bass, 



1 trust, that this hasty and rather rambling account will be 

 of some service to the numerous class of my fishing brethren 

 who like to be right in their use of names and who want to 

 know, you know, but who, like Wilhelm Tell, cannot "lauge 

 prufen oder wahlen." David S. Jobdas. 



Irving ton, Indiana, Nov. 8, 1878. 



A SPARROW'S CHIRRUP FROM 

 EUROPE, 



MR. Editor: ; IST8. 



I am mnoti amused at tae bitterness wtiich t&o sparrow-war m 

 America has assumed, and cannot torbear laughing wlien rnueiuiicrlDg 

 a fanny, melancholy German wlio emigrated to America m 1834 oi '5. 

 He had been thereabout two months or so, when he sad y eliook his 

 liead, lisping s'ghlngiy, " No, I cannot live iu a cnuuiry where tfteie Are 

 not even sparrows," and returned to old Vateriatul. Bui, loarcel, nad 

 he been there ror two months or so, when he became again homesick 

 for America, ahoofe his head in a melancholy manner, lisping sign i ugly, 

 "No, I cannot live iu a couutiy where the police peep even iu yeur 

 porridge pot," mi returned to America. Sparrow at*' 

 and police superabundance iu the eld couuii,-. ill ■ ■ ■ I a 'ioztn 

 limes across the sea, unill he at last died 



lug smUingiy with his mat gasp, "BpftrraT," arid pointing witn his 

 shuBiug linger to a bold coci sparrow which, imoroo '■ ohlrping, 

 straited on the sill «f his open a 



When I wus a little boy the huntsniep or my father hud 1.0 send every 

 year severalhundteds ot sparrov. : rtain num- 



ber of claws Ol bud* of prey and lavcus CO 'lie tOY 

 that time the PrusBlsu Ctuvernmont hud come 10 the cuuafustcou i liar ihe 

 sparrow was a nuisance, \, t 



revoked, for caterpillars and other InseCIa oanseitsuctl rlestl 



the clamors ot the farmers aud gardener- 

 time the sparrows remain unmolested, though thej area 

 tected than any other birds. 



I cannot contradict those American enemies or sparrows who assert 

 that they are most quarrelsome biros, ami drive away bin 

 birds, etc. I can only state my expert 



sparrow U certainly a saucy little fehuw, but i never jet tow It u.narrel 

 with other birds, except sometimes with swallows, which also tmUd 

 their nests under the roofs of houses. The sparrow not . I 

 possession of a forsaken swallows mat, and refuses to give II up Ob the 

 return of the lawful owners in summer. 1 ti equiutly observed the war 

 going on beiween both partiea. The sparrow maintained 1 1 

 malde tnefurt, and I never noticed that other sparrows see 

 Bat It. was different with the swallows. The injured couph- 

 probably to the community, for they returned with a whole host of 

 friends, which attacked the robber detending the narrow entrance of 



his castle. The Bwallows becoming convinced that it Is i 



drive out the usurper, ihuy very frcquentlyixeeu! 



gem : Each of thtm carries in Its bill EOme clay Ot mud, ami i he entrance 



to the nest is very soon strongly walled dp 



It is by no means rare to BnU a dead sparrow In BI 



low's nest. 



Finches, linnets, red-robins, nightingales, .>te„, build Ml 

 trees or shrubs ana Ib&w them never Molested by pparruws; thee* did 

 cot even oewrrej with the red-tall; which bu, rb I 



In winter you cau see wood Idi I ' ' lalBIB Bitted 



ap wUh yarrows In the streets, tlbd i never 8»« the* 9 



I- is a^trtea that sparrows nip the nu B re«9. I inuBt 



SBStBAtlncvernotteeitaoubaprdoUoe eitDer,Bm 

 In sprlog when Hie trees are budding 

 around the bud*, and it may oce 

 are accidentally damaged by me Bpanow - 



trap (hat spai rows like grain, bi, ,.el, moo- 



over It. would not betaken, asthesp.e n 



caterpillars aim the like, and It is astonishing •• Hataqaantil v Dl bn in [» 

 feoatred tor halt a dozen of sucnyoaug glmmiis. When 

 time is over, and. tbe young sparrows are ibis kj 



mj.ty. The 

 damage they can do is, indeed, not verj gl M compared 



usawlodter 



