FISHES EEOM MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 
155 
Color in alcohol, grayish-silvery, dusky above, with indications of two or three darker hands over 
|| shoulder; a dark blotch on opercle; dorsal and caudal same as body, the upper half of membrane 
j| darker, other fins pale. This fish differs from more northern Specimens in the long, narrow, falcate 
pectoral fin. 
The finding of this species so far south is a very interesting discovery. Though a fish of wide 
j distribution, occurring throughout the Great Lakes region and southward in the larger streams of the 
Mississippi Valley and Texas, it has not hitherto been noted from any point south of Matamoras near 
|j the mouth of the Rio Grande, from which place Girard, in 1859, described it as a new species under 
jl the name Amblodon neglectus. It was obtained by Drs. Jordan and Gilbert in the Red River at 
j| Fulton, Ark., and the Colorado River at Austin, and the senior writer of this paper has seen, in 
the Houston market, numerous examples from near the mouth of the Trinity River, Texas. He has 
| also recorded it from the Neches and Angelina rivers in eastern Texas, and from Lakes Tasse and 
{ Peigneur, Louisiana. The Rio Usumacinta is about 600 miles south and 300 miles east of the mouth of 
the Rio Grande. 
45. Petenia splendida Gunther. 
The collections contain 3 specimens of this fish from Montecristo and 1 from Frontera. Head 2.87; 
j depth 2.6; eye 5.3; snout 2.8; interorbital 4; maxillary 1.8; mandible 1.5; D. xv, 13; A. v, 10; scales 
j 6-38-12, 8 vei’tical or 6 horizontal rows on cheek; longest dorsal spine about 3 in head; longest dorsal 
j ray about 1.8; last anal spine 2.75; longest anal ray nearly 2; pectoral 1.5; ventrals 1.6. 
Fig. 5 . — Petenia splendida Gunther. 
Body stout, greatly compressed; dorsal outline strongly arched; snout long and pointed; eye large, 
high up; mouth large, lower jaw projecting; maxillary long, clavate, reaching much beyond eye; 
preorbital very narrow; caudal peduncle much compressed, width 2.5 in least depth; form and general 
appearance very much resembling the crappie ( Pomoxis annularis ); dorsal and anal fins large, tips of 
the rays reaching beyond base of caudal; ventrals long and pointed, their tips reaching base of anal. 
Color, silvery on side, darker above, body everywhere with numerous small black specks, these 
especially plain on side of head and humeral region, the dark on rest of body taking the form of dark 
borders on the scales; middle of side, especially in younger individuals, with 6 or 7 dark vertical 
blotches appearing as half bars extending from median line of back to below middle of side; the first 
of these rather as a dark blotch on upper part of opercle; base of caudal with a large round black spot, 
more or less definitely surrounded by a white border, the white in most specimens as a distinct white 
border, but in others breaking up and penetrating the black spot; dorsal, anal, and caudal with numerous 
small round black spots, plainest and most numerous on the soft dorsal, and arranged more or less 
definitely in rows extending downward and backward; pectoral pale; ventrals somewhat dusky. 
The above description is based chiefly upon the largest specimen, which is from Montecristo. 
