432 CYPRINID.E. 



ABDOMINAL 



MALACOPTERYGII. CYPR1N1D&. 



THE SPINED LOCHE. GROUNDLING. 



Ealia ttenia, J. E. GRAY, Zool. Misc. p. 8. 

 Cobitis ,, LINN^US. BLOCH, pt. i. pi. 31. fig. 2. 



,, ,, BERKENHOUT'S Syn. 3rd edit. vol. i. p. 79. 



,, ,, Spinous I,oche, PENN. Biit.Zool. vol. iii. p. 381. 



,, ,, Groundling, TURTON, British Fauna, p. 103, sp. 00. 



FLEM. Brit. An. p. 189, sp. 70. 



,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 417. 



BOTIA. Generic Characters Body ovate, lanceolate, compressed, with 

 small scales ; head and operculum naked, with a large spine just behind each 

 nostril ; mouth small ; nose produced ; do: sal fin moderate, medial, opposite the 

 ventral fins ; anal fin short. 



I HAVE adopted the generic distinction proposed by Mr. 

 J. E. Gray as it applies to one European species, and to the 

 first eight out of the twelve species described by Dr. F. B. 

 Hamilton, in his account of the Fishes of the Ganges, pages 

 350 to 359. The spine, which is forked and moveable, 

 situated behind the nostril and below each eye in the species 

 of the genus Botia, is an organic difference formed by the 

 suborbital bone, which distinguishes them from the unarmed 

 species of the old genus Cobitis. 



The Spined Loche is much more rare than that last de- 

 scribed. Berkenhout, in his Synopsis of the Natural His- 

 tory of Great Britain and Ireland, says it is found in the 

 Trent, near Nottingham ; Dr. Turton, in his British Fauna, 



