ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 293 



This species has a short, high body, with a peculiarly short trunk of the tail. The length 

 of the head is contained four times and a sixth in the total length, and the height of the body 

 twice and a half. The profile of the back is very slightly arched, so that it is almost parallel 

 to the straight belly, and the descent to the mouth is mostly from the nape and is pretty steep. 

 There is also a considerable ascent from the breast to the mouth, which is terminal, but with 

 the lower jaw a little longer than the upper one. A small conical eminence is represented on 

 the snout immediately before the nostrils. The eye is rather small and is about twice as far 

 from the gill-opening as from the tip of the snout. The cheek appears from the drawing to 

 be covered by the preorbitar, like that of thoracatus, and the whole surface of the operculum 

 is streaked. The lateral line is perfectly straight and is traced on twenty-three scales only. 

 The dorsal commences over the front of the ventrals and approaches as near to the caudal as 

 the anal does. The latter fin has the same direction with the caudal, being attached to a ver- 

 tical inflection of the under profile. The spines of the dorsal and anal are shorter than the 

 soft rays. The figure shows D. 2|1S ; A. 2|5, &c. 



The scales are silvery with bluish- or blackish-gray bases, deeper towards the back, but 

 very pale towards the belly. The top of the head is dark greenish-gray, and the shoulders 

 brownish. The edges of the gill-pieces and the throat are straw-yellow. The fins are green- 

 ish-gray with a slightly brownish tinge on the lower part of the dorsal. 

 Hab. Canton. 



Cyprinus auratus, Lin. Bl. 93 et 410 ; C. et V. xvi. Icon. Reeves, 121 

 and a sheet representing 7 varieties ; Hardw. Malac. 9 ; Descript. of Ani- 

 mals, p. 203. f. 213. Chinese name, Kin tsih (Birch) ; Kan tseih, " Golden 

 carp" (Reeves); Kam tsik (Bridgem. Chrest. 22). 



Figure 121 Reeves appears to be the fish in its natural or uncultivated state. Its colours 

 are pure hyacinth-red, with silvery borders to the scales and saffron-yellow edges to the gill- 

 pieces. The pectoral, dorsal and caudal are hyacinth-red with a pale bluish-gray border to 

 the latter. The scaly base of the pectoral is purple and lilac, the rays of the anal are yellow 

 and those of the ventral red. The most brilliant of the cultivated varieties represented in 

 Mr. Reeves's drawings are vermilion and arterial blood-red, picked off with bright gold-yel- 

 low. Others have the scales shaded with Berlin- and flax-flower-blue, and are marked with 

 large vermilion patches. One is wholly bronze-coloured, the colour being deepest along the 

 back. All the cultivated varieties have an elevated edge or valve between the nostrils, which 

 is not shown in figure 121, and also the triple caudal: one of them has a double anal.; 

 three of them have dorsals but of different sizes, and four of them want the dorsals entirely. 

 One of them has very large eyes, and two or three of them eyes sustained on a telescopic 

 pedestal. 



Hab. "The Province of Tche kiang from latitude 27° 12' N. to 31° 10' N." (Hist, des 

 Poiss. p. 105.) 



Among the ' Icones Piscium 24 a pictore Sinensi,'. &c, one figure measuring 8£ inches in 

 length and nearly 2 inches in height, and belonging to the group of Carassius, has no repre- 

 sentative in Mr. Reeves's portfolio. The dorsal and anal are acute, and the caudal very much 

 so ; the lateral line straight and a little below the mid-height, and traced on thirty-four scales. 

 Colour mountain-green, with metallic lustre on the back, replaced below the middle of the 

 sides by a silvery tint. Upper fins coloured like the back, lower ones pale. M. Valenciennes, 

 at p. 101 of the 16th volume of the • Histoire des Poissons,' mentions two drawings, in the 

 Banksian library, one of which may be the figure here noticed, and the other perhaps one of 

 the three paintings which we have alluded to above under the head of Cyprinus langsdorfii. 



CapoEta rhombea, Temm. et Schl. F.J. Sieb. Bad. D. 14; A. 12; C. 

 19f ; P. 17 ; V. 8. (Spec. Brit. Mus. 3 J inches long.) 



Lateral line straight a little below the middle, traced on thirty-nine scales : ten rows of 

 scales on the height of the body. First two rays of dorsal and anal jointed, but incumbent on 

 the base of the third one. 



Hab. Japan. 



Capoeta limbata, Temm. et Schl. F. J. Sieb. Rad. D. 10 ; A. 12; C. 



19-J-; P. 13; V. 8. (Spec. Brit. Mus.) 



Lateral line decurved in the middle to the lower third of the height and traced on thirty- 

 three or thirty-four scales. The part of the ' Fauna Japonica' relating to this fish and the 

 preceding one is not yet published. 



Hab. Japan. 



