1 10 Mr. J. McClelland on Indian Cyprinidae. 



26. The third subfamily, Apalopterinae, consists of the old 

 Linnaean genus Cobitis, the Anableps, Pcecilia, Lebias, Fun- 

 dulus, Molinesia and Cyprinodons, as well as two other genera, 

 Platycara * and Psilorhynchus, to be described in a subsequent 

 part of this paper. These fishes are all remarkable for their 

 long cylindric bodies, covered with a slimy mucus, the absence 

 of spines in any of the fins, and the shortness of their aliment- 

 ary canal. 



Mr. Gray has recently separated the Loaches with subor- 

 bitar spines from those that are without these singular or- 

 gans. I have endeavoured to find further reasons to strengthen 

 this division, a single character being insufficient to distin- 

 guish a natural group without some more general reference 

 to habits and structure. Not having been successful, I am 

 obliged to resort to another arrangement, which appears to 

 be more natural, and at the same time equally obvious, the 

 caudal of the one subgenus (Cobitis propria) being entire, 

 and that of the other (Schistura) bifid, or divided into two 

 lobes, as in the ordinary Cyprins. Colour is here a no less 

 important guide than we have found it to be in Sarcoborince. 

 Green, disposed in bars and zones crossing the body, charac- 

 terizes all the Schistura except a single species (Botia grandis, 

 Gray), in which the colour is green, with oblong light yellow 

 spots, or rather short interrupted streaks, irregularly disposed 

 in all directions. 



The true Loaches (Cobitis prop.), on the contrary, are all 

 brown, inclining in different species to red or yellow, disposed 

 in nebulous blotches or obscure bars having a transverse 

 tendency. 



27. The structure of the digestive organs in the Loaches 

 and Schistura does not appear to be very different ; but in the 

 latter the intestine seems to be somewhat longer than in the 

 former, exceeding in the one genus the length of the body, 

 while in the other it falls short of this. In both the stomach 

 is a small lunate sac, placed crosswise with regard to the 

 body, with both orifices in the front, thus differing in this 

 peculiarity from all other Cyprinida that I have examined. 

 The mouth is small, and placed in the lower surface of the 

 head, and surrounded by minute cirri. Besides the differ- 

 ence in the caudal fins, length of intestine, and colour, in the 

 two subgenera of Cobitince, the body in Schistura is often 

 arched above and below, and compressed, the same as in 

 Cirrhinus and the generality of Cyprins ; but in Cobitis pro- 



* Named by Mr. Gray as Buchanan's Balitora, which rather corresponds 

 with my Psilorhynchus ; Psil. variegatus being Buchanan's Cyprinus Ba- 

 litora. 



