CHAPTER X 



THE CYPRINOIDS 



The Ostariophysi. The Carp family : synopsis of the British 

 species — the Carp — Carp x Crucian Carp — the Crucian Carp — 

 the Gold-fish — the Barbel — the Gudgeon — the Tench — the 

 Minnow — the Chub — the Dace — the Roach — the Rudd — Roach 

 X Rudd — White Bream — Common Bream— Bream x Roach — 

 Bream x Rudd — White Bream x Rudd— the Bleak— Bleak x 

 Roach — Bleak X Chub. The Loach family: the Loach — the 

 Spined Loach 



THE Carp family [Cyprinidce) and the Loaches 

 {CobitidcB) represent in our waters the im- 

 portant order Ostariophysi, which includes a large 

 proportion of the freshwater fishes of the world. 

 Some of them, such as the Cat-fishes and the 

 Electric Eels, are strikingly different in appearance 

 from the Carp tribe, but all these diverse types 

 agree in the possession of a very peculiar apparatus, 

 formed by the modification of the four anterior 

 vertebrae, some of the elements of which ossify 

 separately and form a chain of little bones on each 

 side — the Weberian ossicles — which connect the 

 air-bladder with the ear. The two first of these 

 represent the neural arch of the first vertebra, and 

 form the wall of a backward prolongation of the 



perilymph spaces surrounding the internal ear ; 



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