378 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



To this group also belongs the smallest of our Eu- 

 ropean cyprini, called 



Cypr. amarus, Bl. viii. 3. An inch long; greenish 

 above, a fine aurora-colour underneath ; in April, 

 during the spawning time, it has a steel-blue line on 

 each side of the tail ; the second dorsal ray forms a 

 tolerably stiff spine. 



Barbus, Cuv. 



The dorsal and anal are short; there is a strong spine 

 for the second or third ray of the dorsal, and four 

 barbels, two on the end, and two at the angles of the 

 upper jaw. 



Cyprinus barbus, L. Bloch. 18. To be recognized 

 by its oblong head : it is very common in clear and 

 running streams, where it sometimes attains the 

 length of more than ten feet. 



Italy possesses some kindred species, whose spine 

 is weaker, but which, nevertheless, differ from gobio 

 in having four barbies. (Barbus caninus, Bonnelli ; B. 

 plebeius, Val. ; B. eques, Id. l ) 



1 Add the barbels of the Caspian sea, Cyprinus mursa, Guldenstedt, 

 Nov. Comm. Petrop. XVII. pi. xviii. f. 3 5. C. bulatmai, Pall, 

 and the barbels of the Nile (Cypr. binny, Forsk. 71.); Sonnini, Voy. 

 pi. xxvii. f. 3., or Cypr. lepidotus, Geoff. Eg. Poiss. du Nil. pi. x. 

 f. 2. 



N.B. Bruce, after giving the history of the true binny, refers to it 

 by mistake the figure and description of a pohjnemus, which he had 

 designed in the Red Sea, from which has originated the imaginary 

 species of the Polyn. Niloticus, Shaw. 

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