CYPRINIDJE. 157 



Family, IV.— CYPRINIDJl. 



Branchiostegals three: pseudobranchis generally present. Body oblong or 

 elongated : abdomen usually rounded, but if compressed and cutting destitute of 

 ossicles. Margin of the upper jaw formed by the premaxillaries Opercles in four 

 pieces. Mouth toothless, but from one to three rows of teeth in the inferior 

 pharyngeal bones, which latter are strong, free, and parallel to the branchial 

 arches. A single, rayed, dorsal fin : ventrals inserted posterior to the pectorals. 

 Head scaleless : body scaled or scaleless, never covered by osseous plates. No 

 "cul de sac" to the stomach, nor pyloric appendages. Air-bladder, if present, 

 large : it may be divided by a constriction into an anterior and posterior portion, 

 neither of which are enclosed by bone (Cyprininae) : or into two lateral portions, 

 partially or entirely enclosed in a bony capsule (Cobitidinae). 



Geographical distribution. — This extensive family includes a large number of 

 forms distributed throughout the fresh waters of the Old World and of North 

 America. As already remarked (page 53), in Europe and Asia it appears to take 

 the place of the Salmonidge of the colder north, increasing in numbers as the 

 tropics are approached, until in Asia the genera are very numerous. Some few 

 forms are said to occasionally to be found in salt lakes, also some are stated to 

 descend to the brackish tidal waters of estuaries, or even to the sea. 



Although some forms of European carps are unquestionably vegetable 

 feeders, all are not so, the difference in their food being indicated to a great 

 extent by the character of their inferior pharyngeal teeth, and the extent of their 

 digestive tract. No one who has fished for the Indian barbel or mahseer (a 

 species of JBarbus), would for one moment place such among strictly herbivorous 

 forms. We have some Gyprinidm which are omniverous, others carnivorous, 

 insectivorous, and gramminiverous ; some which generally associate in schools, 

 others only doing so at certain seasons, and a few that appear to be more solitary 

 in their habits. 



Fatio has observed in carps in Switzerland a greater development in the first 

 pectoral ray in the male than in the female. This is more especially the case in 

 the minnow {Leuciscus phoxinus), which has even seven or eight thus enlarged, 

 and not exclusively at the breeding season. Many of the carps possess cirri or 

 barbels on the snout or jaws, serving as organs of touch. 



As regards hybridism among members of the carp family, Siebold has noted 

 as probably such the following 5 in his Fresh- water Fishes of Central Europe : — 

 Ci/prinus Kollarii, between the common and crucian carps. Abramis Leuckartii, 

 between the bream Bra/ma and a Leuciscus. Abramis abramo-rutilus, between a 

 bream and a rudd or roach. Albnrnus dolabratus, between the bleak and German 

 chub. Chondrostoma rysela, between C. nassus and Telestes Agassizii. Researches 

 in this country do not appear to have afforded any grounds for upholding or 

 assailing the above. 



As food the carp family are not so much appreciated in Great Britain and 

 Ireland as they are on the continent of Europe and elsewhere, probably due to 

 our cooking being inferior, and likewise to fish not being much esteemed by the 

 lower classes, who also prefer the marine to the fresh-water forms. Thus the 

 despised bream, Abramis blicca, which is considered worthless with us, is made a 

 savoury dish by Dutch cooks. Even the chub Lubbock mentions having tasted 

 after it had been prepared by a French woman, who produced from one of these 

 fishes a dish wherein " the scales and bones were absent, the watery taste was all 

 gone, the flesh was firm and sweet in flavour, and altogether it might be regarded 



