210 MALACOPTERYGII. — CYPRINID^. 



bones are set with stout teeth, forming, as it 

 were, a pair of jaws at the entrance of the gullet ; 

 these are opposed by a great flattened disk of 

 stony hardness, placed above them, and lodged in 

 a cavity or socket in the base of the skull. Be- 

 tween these, the vegetable substances on which 

 these fishes principally subsist, are strongly 

 ground down, before they are transmitted to the 

 stomach ; and thus compensation is given for the 

 entire absence of teeth in their more ordinary 

 situation at the anterior orifice of the mouth. 



The scales in the Carps have their free margins 

 rounded and entire, and their front, by which 

 they are imbedded into the skin, cut into sinuo- 

 sities, but not toothed. The accompanying en- 

 graving represents scales selected from various 

 parts of the Gold-fish, {Cyprinus auratus^ Linn.) 

 Figs, a, b, and c, are scales from the lateral line, 

 the first taken just behind the head, the second in 

 the middle, and the third near the tail. The 

 lower part in the figures is the free portion, which 

 alone is visible in the fish, the other part being 

 concealed by the three neighbouring scales that 

 overlap it, above, in front, and below. The tube 

 before referred to, (see page 7), is seen to per- 

 vade each, running through a portion of it longitu- 

 dinally, so that it opens posteriorly on the outer 

 surface, and anteriorly on the inner or under sur- 

 face of the scale. In the scales near the front of 

 the line, the tube is large and prominent, (as in 

 Gj) while, in the very last scale at the opposite ex- 

 tremity, it is merely a groove, d, is a scale from 

 the back ; e, one from the middle of the belly, and 

 /, one from the throat. The variety of form in 

 the scales is illustrated by these figures, which 



