PISCES. 91 



Homaloptera VAN HASSELT, Balitora GRAY. Body elongate, 

 covered with small scales, partly naked beneath. Mouth inferior, 

 small, with six cirri. Eyes small, placed in upper part of head. 

 Pectoral fins large, flattened. Dorsal fins placed above the ventral. 



Sp. Homaloptera ocellata V. HASS. (fig. in the first edition of this Handbook, 

 PI. 13, fig. 12) ; Homaloptera erythrorUna V. HASS., VALENC. Hist. not. 

 des Poiss. xvm. PI. 524, from Java. This genus, as it seems, is inter- 

 mediate between Colitis and Cyprinus. The caudal fin is forked, and not 

 truncated, as in most of the species of Cobitis. According to VALENCIENNES 

 the swimming-bladder is wanting. 



Cyprinus L. Head naked, with mouth small, edentulous. Teeth 

 of inferior pharyngeal bones large ; a hard lamina below the occiput, 

 in place of the superior pharyngeals. Branchiostegous membrane 

 with flat, broad rays. 



Carp; a large genus or a natural group of sub-genera in which 

 all the species admitted by LINNAEUS may be left, with the excep- 

 tion of Cyprinus dentex (Salmo dentex HASSELQ.) and Gonorhynchus 

 GROXOV. There will then remain twenty-nine species which were 

 known to LINNAEUS, whilst now more than 400 species are known 1 . 

 In some the dorsal and anal fins, or the first alone, are furnished 

 with a hard and dentate ray ; in others all the rays are soft. In some 

 the dorsal fin is very long, in others, on the other hand, the anal fin ; 

 in many both these unpaired fins are short. Some have four or two 

 barbules (cirri) at the mouth. On these characters, to which were 

 afterwards added those which are supplied by the different disposi- 

 tion of the teeth of the ossa pharyngealia (AGASSIZ, HECKEL), 

 depends the division of the groups which must in our opinion be 

 regarded as sub-genera alone, not as genera. 



These fishes live in fresh -water, and live principally on seeds and 

 plants, yet also on insects, worms, &c. Most of them are found in 

 Asia and Europe; many species are indigenous. 



Compare on this genus amongst others N. G. LESKE, IcWiyologice Lipsi- 

 ensis Specimen, Lipsiae 1774, 8vo ; AGASSIZ Distribution des genres des 

 Cyprins, Mem. de la Soc. des Sc. natur. de Neufchatel, 1836, Tom. I. p. 33, 

 and foil. (WIEGMANN'S Archiv f. Naturg. 1838, s. 73 82) ; J. HECKEL, 

 Ueber einige neue Cyprinen, nebst einer systematischen DarsteUung der Europ. 

 Gattungen dieser Gruppe, Ann. des Wiener- Museums, I. 1836, a. 219 234, 



1 L. C. BONAPARTE reckons the number even at 650, for which the grounds 

 are unknown to me. 



