CARP-FISHES. 
753 
Genus PHOXINUS. 
Scales very small , at least about 80 in a row along the sides of the body and about 30 in a transverse row on 
each side of the trunk. Lateral line usually incomplete. Jaws equally projecting. Lobes of the caudal fin blunt 
(rounded). Base of the anal fin less than 19 % of the distance between this fin and the tip of the snout. 
The genus of the Minnows, which was introduced 
into the system by Agassiz", is well defined in the 
Scandinavian fauna, not only by its small scales, but 
also by the elongated and terete form of the body. 
From Siberia, however, Wakpachowski has described 
some forms 6 more closely approximated by the deep 
and laterally compressed form of the body to the other 
Leuciscince. In Southern Europe too, the limit between 
this genus and the other genera of the subfamily is 
difficult to maintain, forms of the genus Leuciscus c oc- 
curring there, which have as many as 80 scales in the 
lateral line, though, to judge by the descriptions, they 
differ from Phoxinus in having at most 26 scales in a 
transverse row. In North America the genus Phoxinus , 
as defined by Jordan and Gilbert^, also contains spe- 
cies with larger scales. A chromatic character fairly 
constant in the Minnow, a more or less prominent, 
dark stripe along the sides of the body, and another 
fairly characteristic peculiarity, the tumid form of the 
snout, reappear in the Leuciscus ( Telestes ) muticellus 
of Southern Europe, a form which also composes a re- 
markable connecting-link between the genera of this 
subfamily, and which has sometimes borne the system- 
atic name of the Minnow. Valenciennes c and Gunther ' 
have therefore found it advisable to unite the genus 
Phoxinus with Leuciscus. But it cannot be denied that 
the Minnow is the most singular of all our Cyprinince , 
or that it is well deserving of a distinct rank as a 
connecting-link between the dark and small-scaled Tench 
of the preceding subfamily and the following White- 
fishes with their larger scales. 
The name of Phoxinus is derived from Aristotle, 
who merely remarks, however, that the fish is a fresh- 
water form, capable of reproduction at its very birth 
and always full of roe. Following Belon and Rondelet, 
ichthyologists have assumed that Aristotle here re- 
ferred to the Minnow. 
a Mem. Soc. Sc. Nat. Neuch., tome I (1835), p. 37. 
b Bull. Acad. St. Petersb., tom. XXXI (1887), p. 533. 
c Leuciscus rnicrolepis. Cf. Canestrini, Arch. Zool., Anat., Fisiol., vol. IV (1866), p. 109. 
d Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 16, p. 242. 
e Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. XVII, p. 363. 
/ Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. VII, p. 207. 
