THE CYPRINODONTS. 15 



and to the air-bladder, which so far as now known is present in all members 

 of the family. Wagner gives a diagnosis as follows : 



" Familia, Cijprinoidx. Corpus oblongiun, subconipressum vel teretius- 

 culum squamatum ; caput supra depressum, squauiis tectum ; maxilte 

 ampla); apertura oris parva, transversa; dentes in utroque labro et in 

 pharynge. Membrana branchiostega radiis 4 ad 6. Pinna dorsalis unica, 

 anali o°pposita vel subopposita. Pisces parvuli, fluviatiles, fere omnes 

 Americse indigeni. Gcmra quinque." 



The five genera are those above mentioned. After all synonyms are 

 eliminated, Fundulus brasiliensis Val. is the only new species. The state- 

 ments quoted are certainly enough for the establishment of the family. The 

 next question concerns the adoption of the name he gave it. The name 

 Cyprinidaj was fixed upon the carps by Fleming when the " Top minnows " 

 were included, it is true ; but it belongs to the carps also by virtue of Eafi- 

 nesque's use of Cyprinidi, in 1810, when these minnows were not included. 

 The word Cyprinoidte is incorrectly written ; etymologically corrected, it is 

 identical with Cyprinida^. It seems to have been Wagner's intention to coin 

 a different word. This is shown both in the form he gives the name as he 

 writes it and in the reason given for bestowing it, " wegen ihrer grossen 

 Verwandtschaft mit den Cyprinus-Arten." As he has failed to give a dis- 

 tinct title, it is left for us to adopt the next subsequent applied to the famdy 

 as such. Cuvier, 1829, employed the name Cyprinoides, as also Cyprins, for 

 the CyprinidfB inclusive of the Cyprinodonts ; in this he has not retained the 

 advance made by Wagner. Bonaparte, 1831, accepted the family Cyprinidoe 

 from Fleming and Cuvier, and made three sections in it, — Anableptmi, 

 Psecilini, and Cyprinini. The sections are made in 1838 to rank as sub- 

 families ; a new one, Leuciscini, is added to the Cyprinidae, while the Pa^ci- 

 lini are removed to form, by name only, the family Psecilidte, modified to 

 PiBcilinidaj in 1839, to Piecilidae again in 1840, including Anableptmi and 

 Pcecilini only. Previous to Bonaparte's use of his name for either family or 

 sub-family, Kirby, in 1837, had used Poecilidae for a family of insects. Poeci- 

 lioidei of Fitzinger, 1832, was applied to UmbridjB only. 



Agassiz, 1834, four years previous to Bonaparte's separation of the fam- 

 ily pLilidie by name and six years before a diagnosis of the family was 

 published by him, again separated and named the family of Cyprinodonts as 

 distinct from the Cyprinid.^, remarking, " Apres I'exposition de ces carac- 

 teres [of the Cyprinidas properly so-called], on pressent d^ja que j'exclus 



