ICHTHYOLOGY. 97 



(Salmo orient alis in tlie tributary streams of the Oxus ! 

 Archiv, 1843, ii, p. 113.) The author says: "In general 

 the fresh-water fish of southern Asia are, by their organiza- 

 tion, intended to live upon vegetable food ; in fact, it seems 

 to be universally the case, that the Mammalia and fresh- 

 water Fishes, as the two most heterogeneous forms among 

 the Vertebrata, stand in an inverse relation to each other, 

 so that in those regions where the Rapaces in the one 

 class predominate, they are deficient in the other. A great 

 number of the fresh-water Fish in tropical Asia, the seat of 

 the most rapacious beasts, with their toothless mouth, soft, 

 pointed lips, and slender, elongated, intestinal canal, feed 

 exclusively on vegetable substances; whilst in tropical 

 America, so deficient in rapacious Mammals, not a single 

 vegetable feeder occurs among the Fish. On the contrary, 

 we there find shoals of ravenous Salmonidre, which, with 

 sharp teeth and extraordinary audacity, attack large do- 

 mestic animals, and even men, when necessitated to swim 

 across the rivers." This ingenious remark has apparently 

 much truth in it, though it must not be considered as pre- 

 cisely accurate. Under the " ravenous Salmonidae" the 

 Characinse are intended (vid. Archiv, 1844, Bd. i, p. 81), 

 most of which are furnished with formidable teeth; but 

 among them are also found genera from the same regions, 

 possessing only the most delicate minute teeth ; one even 

 (Anodus) is entirely edentate. These are of course also 

 not intended for animal feeders, but live partly on 

 vegetables, partly on mud, which is rich in organic 

 substances. Among the 57 species of Syrian Fishes de- 

 scribed by Heckel, there are - 45 Cyprini ; 5 Cobitis ; 

 2 Cyprinodontse ; 3 Siluridse ; 1 Mastacembelus ; and 

 1 Muyil. It is to be regretted that the work presents many 

 errors of the press in the names, and some even in the 

 localities. 



In the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 

 Vol. iii, Part ii, p. 133, is a paper by John RichaiTlson 

 Description of Australian Fish, with five plates, in which 



7 



