144 CYPRINOIDS.
bones, and are separated by intervals usually greater than their own
breadth ; in their mode of development, shedding, reproduction and
microscopic structure, they so closely resemble, in both the Clupeoid
and Salmonoid families, those of the Pike,(l) as not to require further
description in this place. The mutual affinity of the herring
and salmon-tribe, is not only manifested in that part of their
anatomy which is described in the present work, viz : the very
general distribution of the teeth, and especially their location in the
superior maxillary bones, but is also illustrated in other parts of their
organization, and is regarded by M. Agassiz as of so intimate a
nature, that he has combined the Clupeoids and Salmonoids of
Cuvier into one natural family under the name of “ Halecoids.”(cJ)
CYPRINOIDS.
58. The family of Cycloid fishes, whose dental system we next
proceed to consider, is as remarkable for the paucity of teeth and the
edentulous character of the bones of the mouth, as are the Hale-
coids, for their general and formidable armature. It is only, in
fact, in one small section of the Cyprinoids that any teeth at all
are present on what may be considered the true bones of the mouth ;
these being restricted in the rest of the carp-family to the bones of
the pharynx.
The exceptional genera with maxillary as well as pharyngeal
teeth are Anableps, Artedi, Pæcilia, Schn., Lebias, Cuv., Fundulus,
Lacep., Molinesia, Less., and Cyprinodon, Lacep. ; all of which are
grouped together by M. Agassiz under the name of Cyprinodonts.
In the Anableps, or “ four-eyes,” the intermaxillary and pre-
mandibular bones are furnished with delicate setiform teeth, like
those of the Salmonoid genus Citharina ; the pharyngeal teeth are
(1) Cuvier cites tlie salmon and the pike together as examples of fishes that have teeth on
all the situations of the mouth where teeth can be placed. “ Il y a des poissons qùi ont des
dents dans tous les endroits de la bouche ou il peut y, en avoir ; tels sont le saumon, le
brochet.”—Leçons d’Anatomie Comparée, Ed. 18.35, tom. iv, p. 337. But besides the pharyngeal,
branchial, hyoid, vomerine, palatine, premandibular, intermaxillary and maxillary teeth,
(the last are wanting in the Pike), there are examples of fishes, as the great Sudis' and
Glossodus that have in addition to all these teeth, both pterygoid and sphenoid teeth.
(2) It is not to be understood that the Pisodus or Phyllodus, the dentigerous plates of
which have been described, for the sake of convenience, after those of the Glossodus, Sec., belong
to the Halecold family, although this is probable as regards the Pisodus.
small hemispherical tubercles. The jaw-teeth of the Pcecilia
are also minute, but somewhat stronger than those of the Anableps.
Those of Lebias are characterized by their dentated margin.
In the Fundulus, the anterior teeth in both the maxillary and premandibular
bones are conical and recurved, while the hinder ones
are villiform. In the genus Cyprinodon all the teeth are “ en velours.”(
1)
The ordinary bones of the mouth in all the true Cyprinoid fishes,
of which the carp and roach may be taken as types, are devoid of
teeth ; but in some species there may be perceived upon the alveolar
border of the jaws, as along the intermaxillaries in the barbel, a band
of minute, close-set and pretty firm papillae, which may be regarded
as the uncalcified analogues of a series of villiform teeth, like those
of the Cyprinodonts. The only true teeth, however, in the present
division of the family are situated on the inferior pharyngeal bones,
which work against each other, or against a very hard upper pha-
ryngeal dental plate, which is fixed in a depression on the inferior
surface of the basilar bone, and may thus be regarded as an occipital
tooth.
The dentigerous pharyngeals are a pair of arched bones
which may be regarded as the last of the lateral branches of the
hyoid apparatus, or as a fifth pair of branchial arches supporting
teeth instead of gills. They are smaller, stronger, and more curved
than the true branchial arches which are anterior to them; they bound
the sides and lower part of the pharynx; their anterior and inferior
extremities are connected together by ligaments, allowing a yielding
motion ; but I have found them sometimes anchylosed together in old
carp(2) ; their posterior and superior extremities are attached by
ligaments and muscles to the occipital region of the skull.
Besides the movements backwards and forwards, the pharyngeals
admit of being approximated and divaricated, and these
movements are produced by very powerful muscles. One of these
muscles, (b, PI. 57, fig. 1, in which the armed pharynx of
the barbel is represented as seen when looking down upon the base
(1) Cuvier, Loc. cit, p. 354.
(2) A portion of the left pharyngeal, so anchylosed to the right, is represented at
PI. 57, fig. 7
L