188 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
FAMILY CYPRINIDZ:. 
Mouth slightly cleft; weak jaws, most frequently without teeth ; margin of the jaw formed 
by the intermaaillaries ; pharyngeals strongly toothed. Branchial rays few. Body scaly. 
One dorsal fin. Belly not compressed, never serrated. Intestinal canal short, without 
cecal appendages. The least carnivorous of all fishes. 
Oss. Two hundred and seventy species, arrayed under twenty genera, have been described 
from various quarters of the globe. 
GENUS CYPRINUS. Linneus, Cuvier. 
Body covered with large scales. A single elongated dorsal fin. Lips fleshy ; mouth small, 
terminal. Teeth in the pharyngeals, but none in the jaws. Branchial rays three. 
THE COMMON CARP. — (Introduced.) 
CyPpRINUS CARPIO. 
Cyprinus carpio. Linn., Cuv. Régne Animal, Vol. 2, p. 271. 
Characteristics. Color golden olive. ‘The first ray of the dorsal and anal fin strongly serrated 
behind. ‘Two barbules at the angle of the mouth. Dorsal fin long, emargi- 
nate. Length, six to twelve inches. 
Description. Body covered with about twelve rows of large scales. A cirrus or barbel at 
the upper part of each corner of the jaw, with a second smaller one above it on each side. 
under the skin may be detected by removing the teguments. Nostrils near the margin of the jaw. Opercles smooth, 
and without spines or serratures. Branchial aperture large; the membrane with eight rays. No barbels nor cirri 
about the head, or depending from its jaws. Mouth wide; lower jaw longest, not as broad nor as much rounded as 
the upper jaw; it is armed with several rows of numerous minute, slender, long and pointed teeth directed backwards. 
In the upper jaw, similar but smaller teeth arranged in several rows, of which the outer are directed horizontally 
forward. ‘Two rows of long hooked teeth on the palatines; vomer smooth. ‘Tongue smooth and free. 
The dorsal fin arises an inch and three quarters from the end of the snout, is higher than broad, composed of seven 
articulated feebly branched rays ; its base 0-3, its height 0-5; it appears to lie in a furrow, but this may have arisen 
from the shrinking of the animal in spirits. Pectorals 0-6 long, with a narrow base of 0+15, with twelve articulated 
and branched rays; the middle rays are long and filamentous, extending nearly to the origin of the dorsal fin, Ventrals 
very feeble, of five rays; the filamentous tips reaching nearly to the origin of the anal. Anal fin quadrangular, arising 
ander the fifth dorsal ray, and containing eight articulated rays. Caudal pointed; its middle rays longest, 0-6 long, 
but appeared to have been mutilated. Vent a small circular orifice in advance of the base of the pectorals, and only 
0-8 from the tip of the lower jaw. 
In alcohol, it appeared to have been of a uniform dull yellowish white, Length, 3-5; of the head to the edge of the 
opercles, 1+0, Breadth of the head at the basal line, 0.6. D.7; P.12; V.5; A.8; C.16% (Cabinet of the Lycewm 
of Natural History.) 
