112 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[52.] ]. Cyprinus (Catastomus) Hudsonius. (Le Sueur.) Grey 



Sucking-carp. 



Family, Cyprinoidese. Genus, Cyprinus, Cuv. Sub-genus, Catastomus, Le Sueur. 



Cyprinus catastomus. Forster, Phil. Tr., 63, p. 158, t. vi. An. 1779. 



Namaypeeth and Sucker. Penn., Arct. Zool., Intr., p. ccxcix., and ii., p. 402. 



Catastomus Hudsonius. Le Sueur, Ac. Sc. Phil., i., p. 107. Richardson, Fr. Journ. p. 717. 



An. 1823. 

 Grey Sucker. Fur Traders. Carpe blanche. Canadians. Namaypeeth. Crees. 



In the Regne Animal the sub-genus Catastomus is characterised as having the 

 same kind of thick, pendent, fringed or crimped lips with Laheo ; and the short 

 dorsal of Leuciscus opposed to the ventrals *. The species inhabit the fresh waters 

 of North America. The first that we have to notice is the Grey Sucking-carp, 

 or Namaypeeth of the Cree Indians. It is a common fish in all parts of the fur 

 countries, abounding in the rivers, and even in land-locked marshes and ponds, 

 but preferring shallow grassy lakes with muddy bottoms. In the beginning of 

 summer it may be seen in numbers forcing its way up rocky streams, and even 

 breasting strong rapids, to arrive at its proper spawning places in stony rivulets : 

 soon afterwards it returns to the lakes. Its food, judging from the contents of the 

 stomachs of those which I opened, is chiefly soft insects ; but in one I found the 

 fragments of a fresh-water shell. In the winter and autumn it is caught in nets, 

 and in the spawning season (June) may be readily speared, or even taken by the 



* Mr. Le Sueur's account of the genus is as follows : — " Back with a single fin. Gill-membrane three-rayed. Head 

 and opercula smooth. Jaws toothless and retractile. Mouth beneath the snout ; lips plaited, lobed, or carunculated, 

 suitable for sucking. Throat with pectinated teeth." — He adds some particulars applicable to the sixteen species which 

 he detected in the waters of the United States. " Scales in almost all marked with radiated lines, and fimbriated on their 

 edges; their form more or less rhomboidal or roundish. Gill-covers large, and composed of three pieces; the anterior 

 "one small in some, as in macrolepidotits, large in others, as in communis: opening wide. Teeth none in the jaws, but those 

 of the throat, on each side, are composed of a range of bones generally blunt and thick at their summits, placed in a pecti- 

 nated form on an osseous arcuated bone, of which they are a component part, and sometimes terminated in a hooked point 

 as in maculosus. The teeth are enveloped in a thick mass of a whitish substance, which covers the throat and supplies the 

 place of a tongue. Mouth generally lunated : to the palate is attached a membrane. Viscera. — The intestinal canal is 

 very much developed, and it has its origin near the throat ; the stomach is simple and without plaits or curvatures, being 

 a continuation of this canal, and appearing to be confounded with it. The intestines make a number of convolutions : in 

 a macro/epidotus, sixteen inches long, they measured three feet five inches. The liver is deliquescent and soon passes into 

 oil after exposure to the atmosphere. The air-bladder is sub-cylindric and is divided in most species into two parts: — in 

 macrolepidotits it is divided into four. In the intestines river-shells (Lymnea, Bulimus, &c), which dwell on aquatic plants 

 and on rocks or bottoms of rivers, are found. The Catastomi are enabled to take these shells by means of their lips j 

 which are protruded forwards by their jaws. It is necessary to remark, that in all the species which I have examined, 

 there is a line that runs from the nape beneath the eyes, and another along the head above the eyes, of small orifices for 

 the passage of mucus ; which lines are well defined after the fish is dried and desiccated, but not so conspicuous when 

 recent. Some species also, in a dried state, have a tuberculated appearance on the head, not discernible in the living 

 fish." Le Sueur, /. c. 



