210 PISCES. 



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FAMILY I. 

 CIPRINIDvE. 



THE Ciprinidee or Carp family are recognised by the slightly cleft mouth ; 

 the weak jaws, generally edentated, and whose border is formed by the inter- 

 maxillaries ; by the deeply dentated pharyngeals which compose the trifling 

 armature of the jaws, and by the smaller number of the branchial rays. Their 

 body is scaly, and they have no adipose dorsal, such as we shall find in the 

 Siluri and in the Salmons. Their stomach has no cul-de-sac, neither are there 

 any csecal appendages to their pylorus. Of all the fishes they are the least 

 carnivorous. 



CYPRINUS, Linnaeus. 



A very numerous and natural genus, easily distinguished by the small mouth, 

 edentated jaws, and the three flat rays of the branchiae. The tongue is 

 smooth ; the palate provided with a thick, soft, and singularly irritable sub- 

 stance, commonly termed a " carp's tongue." The pharynx presents a powerful 

 instrument of mastication, consisting of stout teeth attached to the inferior 

 pharyngeals, which are so arranged as to be able to squeeze alimentary matters 

 between them, and of a stony disk set in a wide cavity under a process of the 

 sphenoid. These fishes have but one dorsal, and their body is covered with 

 scales, which most commonly are very large: they live in fresh water, and are, 

 perhaps, the least carnivorous of the whole class, feeding chiefly on seeds, 

 grass, and even ooze. 



They are variously subdivided. To Cyprinus proper, or the true Carps, 

 belongs the well known 



Cyp. auratus, Lin. (The Golden Carp or Gold and Silver Fish.) Dorsal 

 and anal spines dentated as in the common Carp. This fish is at first 

 blackish, and by degress assumes that splendid golden red which characterises 

 it; some, however, are of a silver colour, and others again are marked by 

 various shades of the three colours. Individuals are found without a dorsal, 

 others have a very small one; the caudal of a third is very large, and is 

 divided into three or four lobes; the eyes of a fourth are excessively distended ; 

 all these accidental changes, which are the result of domestication, may be 

 variously combined. 



To the other subdivisions belong the Breams, Gudgeons, Tenches, Suckers, 

 &c. 



COBITIS, Linnceus. 



The head small, body elongated, invested with small scales and covered 

 with mucus ; ventrals very far back, and above them a single small dorsal ; 

 the mouth at the extremity of the snout, but slightly cleft, without teeth, 

 but encircled by lips fitted for sucking, and with cirri ; but three rays in the 

 branchiae, the apertures of which are small : the inferior pharyngeals strongly 

 dentated. 



