100 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
Europe, Asia, and North America, most of the fossil species 
being referable to existing genera. The body is usually clad 
with scales, the fin rays are articulated, the jaws toothless, 
but the pharyngeal bones are furnished with teeth in one, 
two, or three rows. The air-bladder is large, divided by 
constriction into two portions, enclosed in a bony capsule. 
Dr. Ginther has subdivided this family into fourteen groups, 
whereof the second, Cyprinina, includes the true carps. 
The Carp (Cyprinus carpio) 
Fin ForMvLA. TEETH. 
Dorsal: 21 rays, of which the first is bony and | Jaws toothless; 
serrated. pharyngeal teeth 
Pectoral: 16 or 17 rays, of which the first is bony. in three series, 
Ventral: io rays, of which the first is bony. molar-like. 
Anal; 8 rays, of which the first is bony. 
Caudal: 17 to 1g rays. 
The carp is not indigenous to Britain, being a native of 
Chinese waters, but it has become thoroughly naturalised over 
the greater part of Europe. The name is of unknown origin, 
having found its way into every European language, and 
thence meandered back into late Latin, being mentioned by 
Cassiodorus (XII. 4) in the fifth century. Probably the 
Eastern name travelled westward with the fish, for Aristotle 
speaks of a fish with a soft, fleshy mouth, which he calls 
Kumpivos—cyprinus—apparently the same word as “carp” 
by transposition of the second and third consonants. 
There be writers who confidently fix the exact date of 
the introduction of the carp into England, and others there 
be who, with equal confidence, give different dates. Dame 
Juliana Berners, writing in 1486, mentions it as ‘a daynteous 
fysshe, but there ben but few in Englonde, and thereforre I 
wryte the lesse of hym.” It is a pity that, while they were 
about it, its importers had not chosen a better fish. Fish 
