312 CYPRINID.E. 



England, and probably exists in most of them. This fish 

 spawns about the end of April, or early in May : it is 

 very prolific, and the roe, as might be expected, is in 

 great quantity. Though known to be very numerous in 

 some situations, but little success attends the angler who 

 endeavours to catch them, as they seldom bite freely. They 

 attain considerable size, sometimes weighing a pound, or 

 a pound and a half; in one instance a specimen brought 

 to me from the Thames, in October 1829, weighed two 

 pounds eleven ounces ; but the most common size is 

 about half a pound. The flesh is white and agreeable. 

 This fish is exceedingly tenacious of life. I have known 

 them recover and survive after having been kept out of 

 water thirty hours. The number of fin-rays are — 



D. 18 : P. 14 : V. 9 : A. 8 : C. 19. Vertebrae 30. 



The length of the head, compared to the length of 

 the head and body without the tail, is as one to four ; 

 including the tail, as one to five ; the caudal rays being 

 as long as the head, and one-fifth of the whole length. 

 The body is deepest on the line of the commencement 

 of the dorsal and ventral fins ; and the depth, compared 

 to the whole length, including the tail, is as one to three. 



The form of the head obtuse ; the mouth and eyes 

 small ; the body rather short and thick : the scales large ; 

 seven scales in an oblique line between the base of the 

 first dorsal fin-ray and the tubular scale of the lateral line, 

 and six scales below between that and the origin of the 

 ventral fin ; thirty-four or thirty-five scales along the lateral 

 line ; this line descending by a gentle curve from the upper 

 free angle of the operculum below the middle of the body, 

 thence straight to the tail : the pectoral fin commences 

 in a line under the posterior point of union of the oper- 



