238 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



they have not the same shape, they appear really 

 analogous : like them_, also, they have thick fleshy fins, 

 and a slimy mucous substance spread over their body : 

 they further resemble the eels in having few or no real 

 teeth, and both feed on the same substances. The 

 mouth of the CyprincB is always very small, and the 

 jaws destitute of teeth*; but they have strong powers 

 of mastication, from the inferior pharyngeal bones being 

 provided with a few large teeth, adapted for pressing 

 their vegetable food : the stomach is simple, and with- 

 out caeca. In external characters, they diflPer from the 

 salmons, by having a single dorsal fin ; the majority, 

 also, have very thick fleshy hps, sometimes furnished with 

 barbels t: the scales are generally large, the body ovate, 

 the head thick and obtuse, and the ventral fin consider- 

 ably behind the pectoral ; it is generally, indeed, placed 

 intermediate between the pectoral and anal. The charac- 

 ters of the two typical genera we have not yet clearly 

 determined; but we suspect that the true Cyprince are 

 almost peculiar to the Old World, and that Catastomus, 

 with- its sub-genera, represent them in America. Cy- 

 prinus, even as thus restricted, constitutes a very large 

 group, which, notwithstanding the minute divisions that 

 have been made among the European species, requires a 

 complete revision. If the eighty-three species, which 

 Dr. Hamilton alone has discovered in India, were to be 

 divided on the same plan as has been done with those 

 of Europe, those alone would amount to twenty or 

 thirty sub-genera. Some of those proposed by Cuvier 

 may be adopted, at least for the present; but we must 

 confess our belief that his arrangement of this family 

 is any thing but natural. The genus Cyprinus is dis- 

 tinguished from that of Catastomus, by not having the 

 lips nearly so thick, or the under one hanging down and 

 wrinkled in numerous folds ; Catastomus, also, is entirely 



* Except, of course, in the fissirostra] type, ox Erytkrinus of Gronovius. 



f These, in numerous instances, are so small as to escape detection ; and 

 from their being present or absent in species which have the greatest affi- 

 nity to each other, cannot be made use of as exclusive characters, even for , 

 sub-genera. This is also the opinion of Dr, Hamilton {Gang. Fishes, p. 257.}. ■-■ 



