294 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Lepomis palladus (Mitchill). 



Plate 42. 



Blue Sun Fish. Blue Gill Sun Fish. Common Sun Fish. 



Distinguished from the preceding chiefly by the large rather 

 broad and wide opercular flap of the adult, and the diffuse black- 

 ish blotch at the bases of the posterior dorsal and anal rays. 



I have never seen any New Jersey examples. Dr. Abbott 

 records 3 examples from the Delaware tide-water below Trenton, 

 and subsequently several others. Lately Dr. Evermann found it 

 common in Lake Mashipacong. Much doubt appears to be at- 

 tached to Mitchill's name Lahrits palladus as applicable to the 

 present species. This is due, as contended by Dr. Bean, to the 

 description and the locality. He suggested that the former more 

 readily approaches Bnneacanthus and the latter w^as not in agree- 

 ment with the range of Lepomis palladus, as then known. Dr. 

 H. M. Smith has also recently objected to Mitchill's name on 

 similar grounds, suggesting Pomotis incisor Valenciennes as 

 the oldest name to be used. However, it remains to be proved 

 that Mitchill's fish is not the species now under discussion, espe- 

 cially when its range is now established for the northwestern 

 part of New Jersey and the Delaware basin. From this it may 

 even be expected to be found nearer New York City than for- 

 merly supposed, thus strengthening the possibility that Mitchill 

 really did obtain it from no great distance from the metropolis. 

 I shall therefore retain it, aside from the fact of perhaps the 

 lesser principle of current usage which it has gained. There is 

 also no evidence that the original spelling of the specific name 

 of this fish was unintentional, though of course pallidus would 

 have been the proper form. In such cases, and where euphonic, 

 it appears a more stable policy to adhere rigidly to the original 

 rather than institute an emendation or accept such from a subse- 

 quent writer. 



Lepomis pallidus Abbott, Nat. Rambles, 1885, p. 477. — Ever- 

 mann, Recreation, April, 1902, p. 292. 



Ichthelis incisor Abbott, Rep. U. S. F. Com., 1875-76, p. 837. 



