CHAPTER X 

 THE CYPRINOIDS 



The Ostariophysi. The Carp family : synopsis of the British 

 species the Carp Carp x Crucian Carp the Crucian Carp 

 the Gold-fish the Barbel the Gudgeon the Tench the 

 Minnow the Chub the Dace the Roach the Rudd Roach 

 x Rudd White Bream Common Bream Bream x Roach 

 Bream x Rudd White Bream x Rudd the Bleak Bleak x 

 Roach Bleak x Chub. The Loach family: the Loach the 

 Spined Loach 



THE Carp family (Cyprinidce) and the Loaches 

 (Cobitidce) represent in our waters the im- 

 portant order Ostariophysi, which includes a large 

 proportion of the freshwater fishes of the world. 

 Some of them, such as the Cat-fishes and the 

 Electric Eels, are strikingly different in appearance 

 from the Carp tribe, but all these diverse types 

 agree in the possession of a very peculiar apparatus, 

 formed by the modification of the four anterior 

 vertebrae, some of the elements of which ossify 

 separately and form a chain of little bones on each 

 side the Weberian ossicles which connect the 

 air-bladder with the ear. The two first of these 

 represent the neural arch of the first vertebra, and 

 form the wall of a backward prolongation of the 

 perilymph spaces surrounding the internal ear ; 



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