MALACOPTERYGIT. FAMILY OP CARPS. 45 



position in India, the chief habitat of the Cypri- 

 nidfp, afford every promise of most satisfactory results 

 from his labours. He has divided the family into 

 three sub-families, sixteen genera, and two hundred 

 and twenty-nine species (Ann. and Mag. of Nat. 

 Hist, viii.), so that it has comparatively but few 

 representatives in Britain. It is readily recognised 

 by having the mouth but slightly cleft, weak maxil- 

 laries, generally without teeth, and whose margin 

 is formed by the intermaxillaries ; it has the pha- 

 ryngeals strongly toothed; its gill-covers are but 

 few ; the body is scaly and destitute of an adipose 

 dorsal fin, as we shall find is possessed by the 

 Siluridae and Salmonid^e. A considerable number 

 of the family are supplied with barbules or cirri, 

 which are capable of being contracted and elon- 

 gated, as well as the muscular appendages of the 

 snout, to which they are attached ; differing in this 

 respect from the filaments of the Siluridee, as will 

 be afterwards stated. It is the least carnivorous 

 family of fishes. The typical genus Cyprinus is a 

 very natural one, and comprehends numerous spe- 

 cies, which are distinguished by the characters 

 already enumerated. Their tongue is smooth, and 

 the palate provided with a soft and singularly irri- 

 table substance, vulgarly known by the name of 

 Carp's tongue. The pharynx presents a powerful 

 instrument for mastication, consisting of large teeth 

 attached to the inferior pharyngeal bones, and capa- 

 ble of compressing the food against a strong disk 

 enclosed in a wide cavity under the basilary bone. 



