716 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
The form of the body is generally regular, showing 
the compressed, fusiform outline most typical of the 
Teleosts, whether it extends in a longitudinal direction, 
as in our Gudgeons and Minnow, or rises vertically, as 
in our Breams. In the great majority of the fishes of 
this family" the body is covered with dense and firmly- 
attached, more or less hard, cycloid scales, large or 
small. The greatest external differences which here, as 
in the Glanomorphs, afford the most useful characters 
for the subdivision of the family, consist in the position 
and dimensions of the fins, especially the dorsal and 
anal. The back possesses only one fin (adipose fin 
wanting), situated as a rule at the middle of the trunk, 
but of a greater or less extent forwards or backwards, 
in front of or behind the region of the ventral fins, 
and sometimes set on the tail, above the anal fin, 
which in its turn shows varying dimensions, greater 
or less than those of the dorsal fin. 
The Oyprinoids in general have a rather small 
mouth, the position of which may vary from the tip of 
the snout to the under surface thereof. The lips of 
some (several East Indian) forms are strongly and sin- 
gularly developed, sometimes funnel-shaped and fringed, 
continuous or divided into lobes; but in our forms they 
are smooth and hardly more fleshy than usual. In a 
West Asiatic genus, Chondrostoma, which also occurs in 
Southern and Central Europe, a cartilaginous sheath is 
developed on the lower lip. In a North American ge- 
nus, Acrochilus, a similar sheath appears both on the 
upper jaw and the lower; and in the genus Labeo of 
the Old World the sheath may appear on either or both 
of the jaws. In many Cyprinoids the mouth is fur- 
nished, as in the preceding family, with barbels, which 
always belong, however, to the upper jaw and never 
exceed two pairs; the most common and usually most- 
developed is the barbel at each corner of the month. 
l fhe margin of the upper jaw is formed by the toothless 
intermaxillary bones, which are generally at least to 
some extent (sometimes highly) protrusile. This does 
not depend, however, as usual on any elongation of the 
nasal processes, which are here comparatively short — 
though often prolonged upwards by a cartilaginous con- 
tinuation, which, when the mouth is closed (the upper 
jaw drawn up), folds into a cavity between the tip of 
the ethmoid bone and the rostral cartilage h — but in 
most cases only loosely united to the rostral cartilage 
in front of the ethmoid bone and above the more or less 
cartilaginous head of the vomer. The intermaxillaries 
are without erect, lobate process (cf. above, p. 463), a 
growth which is all the more developed on the maxillary 
bones behind them. The maxillary bones are besides 
remarkable in most cases for their detorted form and 
the short and generally thick head of their articular 
knob. A distortion of the toothless dental part of the 
lower jaw that reminds us of the Mugiloids (see above, 
p. 330), occurs in several Cyprinoids (e. g. in the Bream 
and Barbel, but not in the Ide), in which the upper 
dental margin is thus turned outwards. We are also 
reminded of the Mugiloids by the upright protube- 
rance frequently present at the symphyseal tip of the 
branches of the lower jaw. The most striking resem- 
blance to the Mugiloids — depending on a similarity of 
diet — - belongs, however, to the palate. The palatal 
curtains (vela transversa) of the Cyprinoids are well- 
developed, at least- in the upper jaw. The palatal roof 
is lined with a mucous membrane, thickly covered with 
papillae and arranged in longitudinal folds, which is 
continued backwards, smooth but- with large gustatory 
papillae, on the tumid, soft, cushion-like mass of muscles 
and fat — the Carps tongue so highly prized by the 
epicure — situated under the posterior part of the 
cranium. Backwards and downwards from the body of 
the occipital bone runs an osseous (pharyngeal) process 0 , 
pierced at its base for the passage of a blood-vessel 
( aorta abdominalis), the under surface of which process, 
just at, the end of the said cushion, is shod in a de- 
pression with a cartilaginous, more or less hard and 
tumid disk, the so-called Carp-stone or pharyngeal car- 
tilage ( Karpfen stein , la meule). Against this disk the 
lower pharyngeal teeth, which are highly characteristic 
" In a Southern European genus, Aulopyge , however, the body is entirely naked. It is also entirely or partially naked in three 
Asiatic genera. 
0 This cavity sometimes conduces in a remarkable way, even externally, to the singular form of the snout, which in an Indian ( Labeo 
iiukta, Day, Fish. Ind ., p. 543, pi. CXXVIII, fig. 5) and a Sumatran species {Labeo — Scliismatorhynchus — heterorynchus, Blkr, All. Ichth. 
Ind. Or. Neerl ., Cypr., p. 50, tab. IV, fig. 4) acquires a monstrous appearance, owing to the presence of a deep, horizontal, transverse 
hollow in front of the nostrils. 
c This process was formerly regarded by some as an hypapophysis, by others as an entire haemal arch; but- it arises, as Sage- 
mehl (Morphol. Jabrb., Bd. XVI, p. 516) has at least shown to be probable, in a totally different way from these parts of the skeleton, 
namely by the ossification of connective tissue which Sagem ehl regards as a remnant (trace) of the ligament (also pierced by the aorta) which 
in the Characinoids unites the occipital and parasphenoid bones to the air-bladder. This same connexion we shall also find in the Clupeoids. 
