APPENDIX.

In the preceding report of the Commission of Fisheries for the State of Ohio, I gave a classified list of fishes occurring in the "various rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams of the State of Ohio," prepared by Professor D. S. Jordan, Professor of Natural History at the College of Irvington, Indiana. I employed him to furnish me, also, generic and specific descriptions of our most esteemed food fishes, to accompany some illustratrations. These descriptions and illustrations are produced in compliance with and fulfilment of the law creating the commission, section two of which reads as follows, viz.: "It shall be the duty of the commissioners to examine the various rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams of the State of Ohio, and the waters adjoining the same, with a view of ascertaining whether they can be rendered more productive of fish, and what measures are desirable to effect this object, either in restoring the production of fish in them, or in protecting and propagating the fish that at present frequent them, or otherwise; said commissioners shall inquire Into the matter of the artificial propagation of fish in the various waters throughout the State; and such commissioners shall report the result of their labors, and any recommendations they may have to offer, at the next meeting of the General Assembly of the State."

A part of the duty of the commissioners, then, was to ascertain what fish at present inhabited the Ohio waters, and this involved the necessity of discriminating between fishes to be commended and those not desirable for food. The scientific descriptions and illustrations are produced in compliance with this construction of the duties of the commissioners.

Professor Jordan was employed to furnish these descriptions, for the reason that he is the best authority on fishes in these middle western States; and for the further reason that he has been employed by the Ohio State Geological Corps to furnish a descriptive catalogue of the fishes of Ohio for the volume on Zoology of Ohio, of the geologic series of reports. In this manner, Ohio will be furnished with an uniform nomenclature

in ichthyology, which of itself will be a great step in advance in this branch of natural history.

In consequence of some criticisms made by me relative to the classification of the "Wall-eyed pike," "Blue pike," and "Sauger," and after sending him some specimens of these several fishes, Professor Jordan has reviewed the entire class of Stizostethium, and admits the "Blue pike” to be worthy of recognition as at least a variety, if not a species, of Stizostethium.

The engravings in this report were drawn on wood from photographs, and in almost every instance a specimen from nature was shown the artist, Miss Josephine Klippart. The engraving was done by Mr. Riches. J. H. KLIPPART.

DESCRIPTIONS OF OHIO FISHES,

ARRANGED FROM MANUSCRIPT NOTES OF PROFESSOR D. S. JORDAN, BY HIS ASSISTANT, MR. ERNEST R. COPELAND.

FAMILY GADIDE.

THE COD FISHES.

Body elongate, covered with small, smooth scales; dorsal fins, one, two, or three, occupying most of the back; rays of posterior part well developed; vertical fins never entirely united (as in some related families); ventrals jugular, usually several rayed; gill openings wide; air bladder usually present; no pseudobranchiæ; pyloric cœca usually in large numbers (thirty or more in Lota; genera about twenty-five; species about seventy; an important family, found chiefly in northern seas, a single genus inhabiting the lakes and larger streams of the northern parts of Europe and America.

GENUS, LOTA. Cuvier. 1817. Lings.

Body long and low, depressed in front, subterete mesially, becoming strongly compressed behind; head large, broad and flattened above, the inter orbital space wide and flattened; eyes moderate, lateral, anterior, head above and behind eye, scaly; anterior nostrils, each with a small barble; middle of lower jaw with a long one; mouth large, somewhat oblique, the upper jaw the longest; premaxillaries and lower jaws, each with a broad band of long, slender, recurved, movable teeth; vomer with a broad band of similar teeth, which extend backwards laterally; palatines toothless; gill openings wide, the membranes connected, but free from the isthmus; branchiostegals seven or eight; gill rakers dentate, very short and blunt; scales very small; cycloid imbedded in the skin; lateral line present; vertical fins present; dorsal fins two, the first short, often to thirteen well developed rays, the second very long, and anal similar to second dorsal and nearly as long; caudal fin rounded, distinct; the tail isocercal; ventrals jugular, moderate, broad, their insertion about midway. Probably but a single species, inhabiting all the deep lakes and large rivers of the arctic and sub-arctic regions.

LOTA LACUSTRIS. (Walbaum.) Gill. LAWYER, BURBOT, LING, ALEBY TROUT, MOTHER OF EELS, CUSK, EEL-POUT. (Fig. 1.)

Body sub-cylindrical in front, compressed behind; head broad, depressed; upper jaw longest; the anterior dorsal contains thirteen rays, and the posterior seventy-six; the anal fin contains sixty-eight; ventrals seven; the color is dark olive above, thickly warbled with blackish, yellowish, or dusky beneath. This species grows to a considerable size, and abounds in the great lakes, and all bodies of water north to the arctic seas. [This is the "Lawyer" of Lake Erie, a fish usually regarded as worthless as a food fish, but is readily eaten by the Indians on the shores of Lake Huron. I am told that many Canadians on the eastern shores of Lake

Fig. 1.

FAMILY PERCIDE.

THE PERCHES.

Body elongated or oblong ovate, more or less compressed; head elongate, more or less conical and compressed; eyes large, well forward; mouth moderate or large, its gape extending at least to the opposite the eye; teeth generally villiform-canines present in

Huron, esteem the livers of this fish not only a great delicacy, but as having the medical properties of preventing, or greatly relieving, pulmonary complaints. "Buckeyes" have not yet learned to relish them. It does not occur in sufficient quantities at any season of the year to become an article of commerce, even if eventually found to possess extraordinary qualities.-Klippart.]

one genus-on the jaws, vomer and palatine bones; premaxillaries scarcely protractile ; branchiostegal membrane deeply emarginated; the rays seven on each side; opercular bones more or less strongly toothed or serrated, the operculum scales commonly ending in a spine, moderate or rather small, or more or less strongly ctenoid; dorsal fins, two entirely disconnected or united by a very low membrane; first dorsal with seven to fit teen spines; anal fin with two or three spines, and six to thirteen branched rays; peetoral fins moderate or small, in the normal percoid position on the shoulder girdle; ventrals moderate, behind the bases of the pectorals of one spine and five branching rays, the latter gradually decreasing in length from the first. Genera, fifteen to eighteen ; species, thirty to forty; abounding in the rivers and seas of northern regions.

GENUS, STIZOSTETHIUM. Rafinesque.

Stizostedion, Rafinesque (1820), Ich. Ob. 23.

Pomacampsis, Rafinesque (1820), Ich. Oh. (Perca nigropunctata, Raf.; an erroneously described or mythical species.)

Lucioperca, Cuv. et Val. (1838), Hist. Nat. des Poissons, II, 110. (Perca lucioperca L.Lucioperca sandra, C. & V.)

Sandrus, Stark (1828), Elements of Nat. History, I, 465.

Stizostedium, Cope (1865), Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil., 82, 85 (amended orthography). Stizostethium, Jordan (1877), Ann. N. Y. Lyc. Nat. Hist. (amended orthography). Centropomus, Bleeker (1877). (Centropomus sandat Lac. P. lucioperca L. is the first species mentioned by Lacepede in his genus Centropomus-not Centropomus of Cuvier and Gill-Centropomus undecimalis Lac., a West Indian species, having been by them selected as the type of Centropomus.)

Cynoperca, Gill and Jordan (1877), Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. X, 45. (Sub-genus, based on Lucioperca canadensis, Hamilton Smith.)

Mimoperca, Gill and Jordan (1877), Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., X, 45. (Sub-genus, based on Perca volgensis, Pallas.)

Perca and Centropomus, sp. early authors.

Type Slizostedion salmoneum, Rafinesque.

Perches, with the body elongate, little compressed and the premaxillaries and pala tines provided with some large teeth arranged in rows, the rest of the teeth uniform; tongue toothless; head conical, elongate, depressed, partly covered with small ctenoid scales; preoperculum serrated; aperculum armed with one to twenty spines of varying size the terminations of rib-like elevations on the surface of the bone; dorsal fins separated, the first with twelve to fifteen spines, the second with seventeen to twentythree soft rays. This genus consists of about five species, abounding in the fresh waters of North America and Europe. They are, of course, carnivorous and voracious, but are everywhere highly valued for food. The genus contains four well-marked sub genera, two American and two European: Cynoperea-the Saugers-Stizostethium proper, the American Pike-Perches, S. vitreum and S. Salmoneum; Lucioperca, the European Pike-Perch or Sandre, S. lucioperca, and Mimoperca, the Sandre of the Volga, S. volgense. The characters of these sub-genera are given in the following analysis:

Dorsal fins well separated, the interspace between them more than the diameter of the eye; the distance from the base of the last spine of the first dorsal and the first of the second equal to the space occupied by the last four to six spines of the first dorsal; anal fin II, 12, longer than high; second dorsal I, 17, to I, 21; spines of the second dorsal and anal closely attached to the soft rays; last dorsal spine scarcely erectile, more or less firmly bound down by the membrane; canine teeth strong. (American species.)