204< MALACOPTERYGII. — CYPRINID^. 



and roots and half-decayed leaves of sub-aquatic 

 vegetation ; and even, as is asserted, (though pro- 

 bably on insufficient evidence,) swallowing the 

 ooze and sludge deposited at the bottom of ponds, 

 for the sake of the organic matter contained in it. 

 The typical genera are well furnished for the 

 bruising and grinding down of tough vegetable 

 tissues, possessing in the armed pharynx a power- 

 ful instrument of mastication, which we shall 

 presently describe more fully. The majority of 

 species have thick fleshy lips, sometimes furnished 

 with short cirri or tentacles, and a thick, soft 

 appendage to the palate, well known by the erro- 

 neous appellation of " Carp's tongue," which being 

 freely supplied with nerves of sensation, is doubt- 

 less endowed with a delicate perception. 



Mr. Swainson sees an analogy between this 

 Family and that of the Eels, which he instances 

 in the following particulars : the possession of 

 thick, fleshy fins ; the mucous slime with which 

 their bodies are clothed ; the absence or paucity 

 of proper teeth, and the vegetable nature of the 

 diet. The resemblance, however, appears to us 

 but slight, and counterbalanced by much more 

 numerous and more important points of dissimi- 

 larity: — while in one of the particulars enume- 

 rated the analogy fails egregiously ; for the Eels 

 are as indiscriminately voracious as the Carps are 

 abstemious. 



This is the most numerous in species of all 

 the Families of Fishes, containing, according to 

 Prince Bonaparte's late Conspectus, the im- 

 mense number of seven hundred and twenty- 

 three. This, however, includes the Loaches of 

 the Old and of the New World, of which that 



