CHAPTER II. NOMENCLATURE AND MORPHOLOGY. CLASS PISCES. SUBCLASS TELEOSTEI. ORDER ACANTHOPTERI SUBORDER PERCOMORPHI. FAMILY CENTRARCHIDÆ. SUBFAMILY MICROPTERINÆ. Genus MICROPTERUS LACÉPÈDE. SYNONOMY. Micropterus LACÉPÈDE, Hist. Nat. des Poiss. IV, 325, 1802. (Type M. dolomieu Lac.) Labrus species, LACÉPÈDE, Hist. Nat. des Poiss. IV, 716, 1802. (L. salmoides Lac.) (Not of Linnæus, the type Labrus mixtus L. belonging to the family of Labridæ, the common wrasse-fish of the coasts of Europe.) Bodianus species, RAFINESQUE, Am. Mo. Mag. and Crit. Rev. II, 120, 1817. (B. achigan Raf.) (Not of Bloch, the type of Bodianus, being a marine fish of the family of Serranida.) Calliurus RAFINESQUE, Jour. de Phys. V, 88, 420, June, 1819, and Ich. Ohi. 26, 1820. (Not of Agassiz, Girard, et al.) (Type C. punctulatus Raf.) Lepomis RAFINESQUE, Ich. Ohi. 30, 1820. (Not Lepomis Raf. Jour. de Phys. II, 50, 1819, the original type Labrus auritus L. being a fresh water sunfish.) Aplites RAFINESQUE, Ich. Ohi. 30, 1820. (As subgenus of Lepomis. Type L. pallidus Raf.) Nemocampsis RAFINESQUE, Ich. Ohi. 31, 1820. (As subgenus of Lepomis. Type L. flexuolaris Raf.) Dioplites RAFINESQUE, Ich. Ohi. 32, 1820. Lepomis. Type L. salmonea Raf.) Aplesion RAFINESQUE, Ich. Ohi. 36, 1820. Etheostoma. Type E. calliura Raf.) (As subgenus of (As subgenus of Cichla species, LE SUEUR, Jour. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phil. II, 216, 1822. (C. fasciata Le S.) (Not of Cuvier, the type Cichla ocellaris Bloch, being a South American fresh water fish of the family of Cichlida.) Huro CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. des Poiss. II, 124, 1828. (Type H. nigricans C. & V.) Grystes CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. des Poiss. III, 54, 1829. (Type Labrus salmoides Lac.) Huro SWAINSON, Nat. Hist. and Class. Fishes, etc., II, 200, 1839. Grystes SWAINSON, Nat. Hist. and Class. Fishes, etc., II, 202, 1839. Centrarchus species, KIRTLAND, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. V, 28, 1842. (C. fasciatus K.) (Not of Cuvier, the type Labrus irideus Lac., being a fresh water sunfish.) Centrarchus species, DEKAY, Fishes N. Y. 28, 1842. (C. fasciatus DeK.) Grystes AGASSIZ, Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts. (2), XVII, 297, 1854. Dioplites GIRARD, U. S. Pac. R. R. Surv. X, Fishes, 4, 1858. Micropterus COPE, Pro. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phil. 83, 1865. only.) Micropterus GILL, Ann. Rep. Dept. Agric. 407, 1866. (Name Micropterus GILL, Pro. Am. Asso. Adv. Sci. XXII, B. 55, 1873. Dioplites VAILLANT & BOCOURT MSS. Miss. Sci. au Mexique, 1874. Huro BLEEKER, Syst. Perc. Revis. <Ext. des Arc. Neer. XI, 15, 1875. Micropterus BLEEKER, Syst. Perc. Revis. <Ext. des Arc. Neer. XI, 15, 1875. Micropterus JORDAN, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. Nat. Hist. XI, 313, 1877. Micropterus JORDAN, Man. Vert. E. U. S. 229, 1876; and 2d ed. 232, 1878. Micropterus JORDAN, Pro. U. S. Nat. Mus. II, 218, 1880. Micropterus VAILLANT & BOCOURT, Miss. Sci. au Mexique ined. ETYMOLOGY: μikpós (mikros), small; TEрóv (pteron), fin. Head well developed, its length varying from 3 to 33 times in length of body; compressed; rather full between the eyes; snout rounded; profile straight; lower jaw prominent and projecting. Scales on cheek, opercle, subopercle, and interopercle, but none, or few, on the preopercle. Eye moderately large, nearly median, but rather nearer the snout than the preopercle. Nostrils round and normal. Mouth large, with the cleft oblique; the posterior extremity of the upper jaw extends nearly to, or beyond, the posterior border of the eye. Lips but slightly developed. Preopercle smooth and rounding at its angle. Opercle nearly triangular, emarginate behind, ending in two flat points. Subopercle extends beyond the opercle, ending in a membranous point. Interopercle rounded below. Gill openings large. Branchiostegals six on each side. Scales on all of the opercular apparatus, except on the preopercular limb, where there are none, or very few. Both jaws are armed with pointed, sharp, card-like teeth, curving backward. Patches of villiform teeth on vomer, palatine and pharyngeal bones. Gill-rakers long and stout, and armed with teeth. Tongue moderate and free; thick behind, narrow in front; its surface usually smooth. Body elongate, ovate-fusiform, somewhat compressed; deepest just behind the ventrals. Scales moderate; smaller on breast and nape. Lateral line following curve of the back. Dorsal fin with ten spines; a deep notch between the spinous and soft portions. Anal fin with three spines. Caudal emarginate. Pyloric coca fourteen or more. slightly notched behind. Air-bladder simple, Generic Characterizations. MICROPTERUS Lacépède, 1802.-"Un ou plusiers aiguillons, et point de dentelure aux opercules; un barbillon, ou point de barbillon aux mâchoires; deux nageoires dorsales; la seconde très-basse, très-courte, et comprenant au plus cinq rayons."(LACÉPÈDE, Hist. Nat. des Poiss. IV, 325, 1802.) CALLIURUS Rafinesque, 1819.-"Corps oblong comprimè. Tête et opercules écailleux, preopercule lisse, à 3 sutures caré nées réunies en angle supérieurement, opercule postérieur à épine sur un appendice membraneux anguleux. Bouche trèsfendue, mâchoires à grandes dents, sans lèvres, l'inférieure prolongée. Une nageoire dorsale deprimée au confluent des rayons épineux. Nageoires thoraciques à 5 rayons dont 1 épineux. Anus au mileu. A genre differe principalement du genre Etheostoma par la forme du corps de la bouche et l'opercule ecailleux. C. punctulatus. Olivâtre, parsemé de points noirs très, rapprochés, ligne latérale peu courbée; queue bilobée, Jaune à la base noire au milieu, blanche au bout. D. 14, A., P. 15, C. 24. Noms vulgaires de l'Ohio, Black-perch et Fine-tail."— (RAFINESQUE, Jour. de Physique, V, 88, 420, June, 1819.) CALLIURUS Rafinesque, 1820.-"Body elongate, compressed, scaly; fore part of the head without scales, neck and gill-covers scaly; mouth large with strong teeth in both jaws, and without lips. Gill-cover double, preopercule divided downwards into three curved and carinated sutures, without serrature; opercule with an acute and membranaceous appendage, before which stands a flat spine. One dorsal fin, spiny anteriorly, depressed in the middle. Anal fin with spiny rays, thoracic with none, and only five soft rays. Vent nearly medial. The generic name means fine-tail. It differs principally from the genus Holocentrus, by the head, scaly gill-cover and singular preopercule: genus 12 of my 70 new genera of American animals." (RAFINESQUE, Ich. Ohi. 26, 1820.) LEPOMIS Rafinesque, 1820.-"This genus differs from Holocentrus by having the opercule scaly, from Calliurus by the opercule only being such, while the preopercule is simple and united above with a square suture over the head, besides the thoracic fins with 6 rays. Perhaps the Calliurus ought only to be a subgenus of this. From the G. Icthelis it differs by the large mouth and spines on the opercule. The name means scaly gills. The species are numerous throughout the United States. They are permanent; but ramblers in the Ohio and tributary streams. They are fishes of |