138 



THE FRESH- WATER FISHES OF EV 



A third form, named by Heckel and Kner Plotizza (Fig. 64), is also 

 Dalmatian, but has been met with at Livno, in Bosnia. The name Plotizza is 

 locally given to White Fish, and those authors appear to have considered the 

 verdict of fishermen as to the distinctness of fishes binding on scientific 

 nomenclature. The unpaired fins are rather more feebly developed than in 

 the typical Rudd. The profile of the frontal region is horizontal, and the 



dorsal outline less convex. The dorsal fin is higher 

 than long, but the longest rays of the anal fin are 

 shorter than those of the dorsal. It reaches a 

 length of fourteen inches. 



A fourth variety was named by the Austrian 

 authors L. macrophthalmus (Fig. 67). It is known 

 only in the Tyrol, where it is distinguished as 

 the Red Carp. Its common length is from three 



to seven inches. The body is covered with a net- work of black pigment; 

 all the fins are grey, except the ventral. The head is one-fifth of the length 



Fig. 66. LEUCISCUS SCARUAJ'A 



SC.VLES : , ABOVE THE 

 LATERAL LINE ; b, IN THE 

 LATERAL LINE. 





Fig. 67. LEUCISCUS ERYTHROPHTHALMCS, VAR. MACROPHTHALMLS. 



of the fish, and is three and a half times the length of the eye. Most of 

 the scales have only two or three rays with concentric marking, and the 

 largest scales are scarcely two-thirds of the diameter of the eye. It is dis- 

 tributed throughout Europe, and is recorded from Asia Minor. This habit 

 of distinguishing local varieties by names, if followed out persistently by 

 naturalists, may lead to a recognition of the steps by which species vary 

 and merge in each other, but is ill-suited to giving a conception of the fish, 

 which is substantially the same in all localities in which it is found. 



