154 Malacopterous Abdominals. FISHES. Acanthopsides- 
small bones ; the second air-chamber communicates 
with the gullet by a long tube. 
The Cyprinoid genera are divided by Heckel into three tribes : — 
1st. The Tiiick-lippep.s {Pacliychili) — Cyprinus; Osleo- 
hrama; Carpio; Carassius; Tinea; Barhus; Gubio; Anlopyye; 
Rhodius (Agassiz); Abramis; Blicca; Blicco27sis ; Pe/ecus ; 
Alburmts; A spins (Agassiz): Leucaspius; Idus ; Scardinius; 
Leucos ; Leuciscus ; Sqvalius ; Telestes ; Phoxinus ; and 
Phoxinellv.s. These are European genera, some of wliich embrace 
also Asiatic species, and a purely Asiatic genus, Epaheorhyn- 
chus of Sleeker, is to be added to them. 
2nd. Prone-moutukus (Catastomi), having thick, papillose, 
or furrowed lips ; and incorporated with the pharyngeal bone a 
crescentic series of pharyngeal teeth, whose crowns adapted for 
grinding are compressed yet broader than their stems — Cata- 
sloynus ; Moxostoma ; Cyckptiis ; Ptychostom’is ; ITylomyzon ; 
Rhinichthys; Carpioides ; Jchtliyobiis ; Crossocheilos (Sleeker); 
Lobocheilos (id.); and Bubalichthys (id.). These are American 
genera, including comparatively very few European or Asiatic 
representatives. 
3rd. Cutting-i.ippers (C%on<frostow?i), in which the mandi- 
ble is sheathed by an almost cartilaginoits lip, whose edge is 
thin and incisorial. They are numerous in Asia, and perhaps 
still more so in America, but Europe nourishes only one repre- 
sentative of the group — Ckondrostoina ; Acrocheilns ; Exoglos- 
sum; Campylostoma; Pimephales ; Jlyloborhynchus ; Ilytobo- 
gnathus; Ptychocheilus ; Mylocheilus; Aspidoparia ; and Caila. 
Many genera of Asiatic Cyprinoids proposed by Dr. M‘Clelland 
and others, I'equire to be more fully described before their correct 
position can be ascertained. Such are — Peiecus; il/oZa (Blyth) ; 
Oreinus (M'Clelland) ; Systomus (id.) ; Perilamjyus (id.) ; Opsa- 
rius (id.) ; Capbeta (id.) ; Nuria (id.) ; Dangila (Valenciennes); 
Chela; Bengala; Polia; Cirrhinus; Psilorhynchus; Sekisothorax; 
Racoma ; Devario (Heckel) ; Schisojiyge (Sleeker) ; Labio ; 
Rohila ; Pylognathus (Heckel) ; Biscognathvs (id.) ; Cyrene 
(id.) ; and Platycara (McClelland). Labio and the four fol- 
lowing genera form the group called Pennochitce by Heckel. 
The Cyprinoids are, more exclusively than almost 
any other large family, fresh-water fishes, though some 
species descend the rivers into the brackish waters of 
estuaries or inland seas. Most of them flourish and 
multiply in ponds. Their cultivation has been much 
attended to in China, whose teeming populations derive 
great quantities of food from this family of fishes. 
In America the Catastomi, or Sucking-carps, are 
most abundant, and yield wholesome supplies to the 
natives all the year round, up to the northern extremity 
of the continent. 
The British species are — The Common Carp 
{Cgprinus carpio) ; the Crucian Carp {Carassius lin- 
nai) ; the Prussian Carp (C. gibelio) ; the Gold Carp 
{C. auratus) ; the Barbel {Barbus fluviatilis) ; the 
Gudgeon {Gobio fluviatilis) ; the Tench {Tinea vul- 
garis) ; the Bream {Abramis brama) ; the Bream -flat 
{Blicca argyroleuca) ; the Pomeranian Bream {Blic- 
copsis hvggenbagii) ; the Eudd {Scardinius erythroph- 
talmus) ; the Azurine {Sc. ccendeus) ; the Ide {Idus 
idbarus) ; the Chub {Id. melanotus) ; the Dobule {Squa- 
lius dobula) ; the Dace {Sq. leuciscus) ; the Graining 
{Sq. lancastriensis) ; the Roach {Leuciscus rutilus ) ; 
the Bleak {Alburnus lucidus) ; the Minnow {Phoxinus 
loivis). 
Cuvier remarks that the name of the Carp, though 
mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny, does not occur in 
Ausonius, and thence infers that at the end of the fourth 
century, when the Bordeaux poet wrote, the Carp, which 
came from the East, had not reached the Moselle. It 
is not included in the ample list of fish served up at 
the feast held in 1466 at the enthronization of the Arch- 
bishop of York ; but fifteen years later the prioress of 
St. Alban’s, Dame Juliana Berners, in her “Boke of St. 
Alban’s,” printed in 1481, calls it “ a deyntous fisshe.” 
This passage was doubtless unknown to Leonard Mas- 
call, who claims to have introduced Carp and Pippins 
into England in the year 1600. The suppression of 
the monasteries had probably caused the Carp ponds 
to be neglected. 
Family XXII.— ACANTHOPSIDES {Acanthopsidai). 
Plate 4, fig. 21. 
Fishes of this small family have generally a fusiform 
body, with tliickish tails and a small head, covered 
with smooth skin as far back as the gill- openings. The 
preorbital scale-bone, and frequently the bony opercu- 
lum, emit one or more spines, in which respect they 
differ from the Cyprinoids. Suctorial lips and barbels 
surround the orifice of the small toothless mouth A 
short dorsal, destitute of bony rays, stands over the 
ventrals. Small scales clothe the body ; the gill-open- 
ings are short vertical slits; and the branchiostegals are 
three in number. No pseudobranchiae are developed. 
A globular bony cell, constructed in processes of the 
large anterior vertebra, receives the swim-bladder, from 
whence chains of bones extend towards the acoustic 
organs. 
The genera are — Cobifis; Boiia; Acantliopsis; Apw (Blyth); 
Prostheacanthns (BhUh); Fangio (id.); Syncrossus (id.); 
Schistura (M'Clelland) ; Homoloptera (Kuhl et Van Hasselt); 
and Balitora (Gray). 
This last form is depressed, is furnished with large 
spreading ventrals and pectorals, and has no air-blad- 
der. The Loach or Beardie {Cobitis) and the Ground- 
ling {Acanthopsis) are British representatives of these 
genera. 
Order VI.— SILUROID S. 
Fishes of this order have either a smooth naked skin 
or a lateral line protected by keeled scales, which are 
sometimes so expanded as to encase the whole body, 
each side being protected by one row above, and 
another below the lateral line. In the second family 
of the order the scales are disposed in more numerous 
rows. The cranial and humeral bones often appear on 
the surface, forming with some of the interspinous 
bones shields of various forms ; and the skeletons differ 
considerably from those of the common osseous fishes. 
The sub-operculum is wanting, and the epicoracoid is 
reduced to the condition of a mere process of the cora- 
