GILL] NOTEWORTHY EXTRA-EUROPEAN CYPRINIDS 327 
has been described and illustrated by Boulenger (1901). The genus 
is represented by about eight species occurring in various waters of 
Central and Eastern Asia. The largest and best known of these are 
the Chinese H. molitrix and H. nobilis. 
The Hypophthalmichthys molitrix is an inhabitant of China, where 
it is known as the Lenhi; it sometimes attains a large size—between 
three and four feet... It is highly 
esteemed as a food fish, and is the 
object of a considerable pisciculture, 
not only in China, but by Chinese be- 
yond the borders of their country. 
According to Mitsukuri (1905) the 
Chinese of Formosa import the 
young, “when nine to ten inches 
long,” from China “in November and 
December,” place them in ponds 
where they are “abundantly fed,” 
and when they have become a “ foot 
long” they are ready for market. The “fish is cultivated in all 
parts of Formosa.” 
The clupeiform Cyprinids typified by the European sichling 
(Pelecus cultratus) are represented by Chinese fishes distinguished 
from Pelecus by the development of three rows of pharyngeal teeth 
(5 or 4, 4, 2—2, 4,4 0r 5). Parapelecus argenteus and P. mache- 
rius are species. 
Fic. 86.—Pharyngeal bones of 
Hypophthalmichthys. After 
Steindachner. 
JAPANESE CYPRINIDS. 
As already indicated, the Cyprinoid fauna of Japan is in its gen- 
eral features essentially similar to that of Britain and the rest of 
western Europe, that is, it is part of one and the same great 
“eurasiatic”’ or “ palzarctic” realm, but an entirely distinct sub- 
ordinate region. The fullest exposition of its character has been 
given by David S. Jordan and Henry W. Fowler in “a review of 
the Cyprinoid fishes of Japan,” published in 1903 (Proc. U. S. 
Nat. Mus., xxv1, 811-862). Then thirty-four species represent- 
ing twenty-one genera were recognized. Most of the genera are 
monotypic and peculiar to Japan and China, but others are shared 
with Europe. Cyprinines (Cyprinus and Corassius), in the persons 
of the common and Prussian carps, are in both extremes in a state 
of domestication. The carp “has run into many varieties, dis- 
tinguished by differences in form, squamation, and development of 
* According to information communicated to A. Giinther (1889) both H. 
nobilis and H. molitrix attain equal size, “ exceeding a length of four feet.” 
