REPRINT OF ORIGINAL TEXT 99 



XV. Genus. MlNNY. Minnilus. Minny. 



Body elongated, somewhat compressed, covered 

 with small scales. Vent medial. Head flat above, 

 and somewhat shielded. Gill cover double, scale- 

 less, three branchial rays. Mouth diagonal, small, 

 toothless and beardless, without lips, lower jaw 

 shorter and narrower. A small trapezoidal dorsal 

 fin, nearer to the head than to the tail, opposite to 

 the abdominal fins, and without spines. Abdominal 

 fins with eight rays and without appendages. (Tail 

 forked in all the Ohio species.) 



[^<5] There are in the United States more than fifty 

 species of small fresh water fishes, (and in the Ohio 

 waters more than sixteen species) commonly called 

 Minnies, Minnews, Bait-fish, Chubs, and Shiners, 

 which should belong to the genus Cyprinus of Lin- 

 neus, or rather to the part of it which has been called 

 Leuciscus by Klein and Cuvier ; which subgenus (or 

 genus) is distinguished by a small dorsal fin, no 

 spines nor beards ; but as the genus Cyprinus forms 

 now a large family, and that even the genus Leuciscus 

 must be divided, since it contains more than one 

 hundred anomalous species, differing in the position 

 of the dorsal fin and the vent, the number of rays to 

 the abdominal fins, &c, I venture to propose this and 

 the three following genera. Three other different 

 genera might be es- [II. 236] tablished upon the 

 European species, distinguished as follow : 



Dobula. Dorsal fin nearer to the tail, abdominal 

 fins with nine rays and an appendage: upper jaw 

 longer. 



Phoxinus. Differs by ten abdominal rays and no 

 appendage. 



