mouth. But it varies much in form and scaling, and some
most aberrant varieties have been fixed by artificial selection, the
principal being the king-carp or mirror-carp, in which the scales are
enlarged and reduced in number, forming more or less regular
longitudinal series on the sides, and the leather-carp, in which the
scales have all but disappeared, the fish being covered with a thick,
leathery skin. Deformed examples are not of rare occurrence.

Although partly feeding on worms and other small forms of animal life,
the carp is principally a vegetarian, and the great development of its
pharyngeal apparatus renders it particularly adapted to a graminivorous
regime. The longevity of the fish has probably been much exaggerated,
and the statements of carp of 200 years living in the ponds of
Pont-Chartrain and other places in France and elsewhere do not rest on
satisfactory evidence.

A close ally of the carp is the Crucian carp, _Cyprinus carassius_,
chiefly distinguished by the absence of barbels. It inhabits Europe and
northern and temperate Asia, and is doubtfully indigenous to Great
Britain. It is a small fish, rarely exceeding a length of 8 or 9 in. It
has many varieties. One of these, remarkable for its very short, thick
head and deep body, is the so-called Prussian carp, _C. gibelio_, often
imported into English ponds, whilst the best known is the goldfish
(q.v.), _C. auralus_, first produced in China. (G. A. B.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The name of the fishes of the genus _Cyprinus_ is derived from
the island of Cyprus, the ancient sanctuary of Venus; this name is
supposed to have arisen from observations of the fecundity and
vivacity of carp during the spawning period.

CARPACCIO, VITTORIO, or VITTORE (c. 1465-c. 1522), Italian painter, was
born in Venice, cf an old Venetian family. The facts of his life are
obscure, but his principal works were executed between 1490 and 1519;
and he ranks as one of the finest precursors of the great Venetian
masters. The date of his birth is conjectural. He is first mentioned in
1472 in a will of his uncle Fra Ilario, and Dr Ludwig infers from this
that he was born c. 1455, on the ground that no one could enter into an
inheritance under the age of fifteen; but the inference ignores the
possibility of a testator making his will in prospect of the beneficiary
attaining his legal age. Consideration of the youthful style of his
earliest dated pictures ("St