PERCOIDE^E. 



division which has the ventrals placed under the pectorals, the small genera of 

 Etelis, Aprion, Grystes, Aplodactylus, Bryttus, and Chironemus, alone resemble 

 the Huron, in having the preoperculum without either crenatures, denticulations, 

 sharp points, or spines : some Pomoti, however, have the crenatures of this bone 

 scarcely perceptible, and in Pomatomus its edge is finely ciliated. Of the Per- 

 coidese whose ventrals are jugular or abdominal, Aphritis, Bovichtus, Sphyzcena, 

 and Paralepis, have also a smooth preoperculum ; Trachimis and Percis have two or 

 three small bony points which are not perceptible through the soft parts, and Per- 

 cophis has the edge of its bony preoperculum even, but there is attached to it a 

 narrow border of dentated membrane. It would be easy, the Baron observes, to 

 modify the characteristic phrases of the larger generic groups, so as to include the 

 Huron and other similarly-isolated species ; but this practice would lead to the 

 erroneous belief of there being a more intimate connexion between these aberrant 

 species and the types of the groups than actually exists ; and as he aims at express- 

 ing, even by the subdivisions of his families, the affinities of the different beings 

 composing them, it is more in accordance with his plan to give to every peculiar 

 form a proper generic name. A smooth tongue is one of the characters of the 

 genus Perca, which we have not been able to identify in the Huron, that member 

 having been removed from our specimen, as has also the branchial apparatus. Mr. 

 Todd mentions two plates of teeth on the superior pharyngeal bones and one on the 

 lower. The figure in the Histoire des Poissons represents eleven soft rays in the 

 second dorsal, three of them in dotted lines ; there are only eight now existing in 

 the specimen, but the skin immediately behind the last one is a little damaged, and 

 from the contour of the fin, one is induced to think that at least one posterior ray 

 has been destroyed. 



This fish is known to the English settlers on the borders of Lake Huron, by the 

 name of Black bass — the word " bass " being almost synonymous with perch. 

 The same appellation is given, at New York, to the Centropristis nigricans, to 

 which our fish has a general resemblance. The Huron is highly esteemed as an 

 article of diet, its flesh being white, firm, and well-flavoured, and it is, in fact, 

 considered to be the best fish that is caught in the lake during the summer months. 

 It haunts deep holes at the mouths of rivers or edges of banks, and readily takes a 

 hook baited with a small fish, or a piece of white rag trailed after a boat, as in 

 fishing for mackerel. It does not exist to the northward of the Great Canadian 

 Lakes. 



