Malacopterous Abdominals.- 



-FISHES.- 



-Cyprinoids. 



153 



Family XIX.— LUCIOIDS {Esocidw). 

 Plate 4, fig. 19. 



These are scaly abdominal Malacoptores having no 

 adipose fin, but possessing covered glandular pscudo- 

 branchia; on the inside of the gill -cover, and also diffuse 

 vascular ramifications on the inner side of the skin, 

 which are peculiar to the fi^mily. It consists of a 

 single genus {Esox), the type of form being the well- 

 known Common Pike or Luce. The orifice of the mouth 

 is formed above in the middle by the premaxillaries, and 

 on the sides by the maxillaries ; these bones with the 

 vomer and palatines being, as well as the pharyngeals, 

 set with strong card-like teeth, and being, moreover, 

 very movable on each otlier. The stomach is siphonal, 

 there are no pancreatic cseea, and the swim-bladder is 

 simple. The Pike bears a variety of names in Great 

 liritain : as Pickerel, Jack, and Luce in England; Gedd 

 in Scotland ; and Penhwyad in Wales. Individuals 

 weighing sixty-nine pounds have been taken in Loch 

 Lomond and Lough Neagh. The North American 

 lakes contain a variety of species, some of them attain- 

 ing a large size. 



Family XX.— CYPRINODOXTS {Cyprinodontida). 

 Plato 4, fig. 18. 



Tlieso are small fishes that exist abimdantly in the 

 warmer temperate districts of both licmispheres, and 



were originally described as tooth-bearing Carps. They 

 resemble the Cyprinoids in habit, but have slender 

 teeth on tlie jaws, and want the large under pharyngeal 

 teeth, as well as the opposing basi-ocoipital tubercles ; 

 their upper and under pharyngeal teeth being slenderly 

 card-like. No bone corpuscles were detected by Kiil- 

 likcr in their skeletons. The maxillaries are like those 

 of the Cyprinoids, and the protractile, dentiferuus pre- 

 maxillaries border the upper half of the mouth. The 

 simple swim-bladder is not connected with a chain of 

 acoustic ossicles ; there are no pseiidobranchia; and no 

 pancreatic CKca. The stomach is siphonal, and the 

 branchiostegals are more than three, being usually five 

 or six. Some members of the family are viviparous. 



Tlie gener.i are — Behnestis (Kaup) ; Pcecilia ; iMinesia ; 

 Xipluiphoi'us (Hcckd) ; Cyprhiodon ; Fundulns ; JJi/drarf/i/rti ; 

 Gainbiisia; Girardinus; Limia (Mem. sobre la Hist. Nat. do 

 Cuba, par Poey) ; Grundulus ; Orestias; ^nd Anableps. 



Some Cyprinodoas inhabit very isolated pieces of 

 water, such as wells in the oases of the African deserts. 

 Artesian wells in Algeria, and the hot-springs of Canoa 

 in Ceylon. 



Family XXI.— CYPRINOIDS.— Plate 4, fig. 20. 



This family may be characterized as an assemblage 

 of Malacoptores having single dorsals, ventrals on the 

 abdomen, and bodies covered with cycloid scales that 

 do not extend over the head and face : one or two 

 genera only arc scaleless. The orifice of the mouth is 



Fig. 40. 



Sublime Cbondrostome or Tsungyn of Chiua. 



small and toothless, and is bordered above by the pro- 

 niaxillaries only, the maxillaries lying behind them. 

 Teeth exist on the inferior pharyngeals alone, and they 

 are incorporated with the bones rising from them in 

 one or more rows, to oppose by their crowns or cusps 

 a cartilaginous or bony tubercle which ia imbedded in 

 the basi-occijiital. The palate is soft, pulpv, granular, 

 Vor.. II. 



and sensitive ; the branchiostegals arc three only ; and 

 the biserial gills four. Seated deeply beneath the lining 

 of the gill-cover there are vaso-ganglionic pscudo- 

 brauchia;. The swim-bladder is divided by one or 

 more narrow necks into successive chambers, tlie fore- 

 most of which is encased in a thick, soft, fibrous capsule, 

 and is connected with the acoustic organs by chains of 



U 



