COMMON CAR P. 305 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGU* CYPR1NID1EJ 



THE COMMON CARP. 



Cyprinus carpio, LINNUS. BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 16. 



,, Carp, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 467, pi. 81. 



,, ,, DoN.Brit.Fish.pl.llO. 



,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 185. 



,, ,, CUVIER, Regne An. t. ii. p. 271. 



Generic Characters. Body covered with large scales ; a single elongated 

 dorsal fin ; lips fleshy ; mouth small ; teeth in the pharynx, but none on the 

 jaws ; branchiostegous rays 3. 



HAVING concluded Baron Cuvier's first order, the Acan- 

 thopterygian fishes, or those bearing numerous spines, which 

 support the whole or part of the membranes of some of the 

 fins, and of which various examples have been given, the 

 species forming the next great division are called Malacop- 

 terygian fishes, or those having their fin-membranes sup- 

 ported by flexible rays, which are either jointed or branched, 

 or both. These are again divided into three orders, accord- 

 ing to the position of the ventral fins, or in wanting the 



* Soft-finned fishes; the fin-rays almost universally flexible, 

 j- The family of the Carp. 



VOL. I. X 



