Mr. J. McClelland on Indian Cyprinidae. 109 



and Felina has already been referred to (16.). Why the former 

 should present similar external markings to those which be- 

 long to the most destructive types of quadrupeds and birds, 

 cannot well be accounted for on other principles than those of 

 symbolical representation, by which an uniformity of design 

 appears to extend throughout all the infinite forms in the ani- 

 mal kingdom. As an ignorant confidence in this or any other 

 doctrine would be as absurd as a denial of anything else with 

 which we are imperfectly acquainted, the only way in which 

 we can evince our respect for those who have opened so vast 

 a field for inquiry is, to imitate their industry, leaving our 

 views to be slowly formed and matured with the progress of 

 inquiry — the only way in which sound or useful results ever 

 were or can be elicited in scientific pursuits*. 



Green appears to be the characteristic colour of the mark- 

 ings on the sides of Opsarions, as blue or purple forms those 

 of the Perilamps ; and those Opsarions that are not either 

 marked with transverse green bars, or oblong spots of the 

 same colour transversely placed with regard to the body, are 

 covered with a silvery pigment similar to that of the Leuciscs. 



25. In consequence of the important connexion between 

 colour and structure here pointed out, I am in some doubt as 

 to the nature of four small species described by Buchanan f, 

 and figured in the collection of his drawings at the Botanic 

 Garden. Two of them have been figured in the e Gangetic 

 Fishes/ and one a second time in Hardwicke's tf Illustrations'; 

 but in the published figures, the peculiarity of the colours to 

 which I allude, and which seems to have been preserved in 

 the original drawings, has been overlooked. They have the 

 form of Cirrhins, but they are each marked with a dark spot 

 at the end of the tail, and the colours of the back descend 

 partially across the sides in bars as low as the situation of the 

 lateral line. I have added the species in question to the 

 Cirrhins as Cirrhinoids, until we know something more of 

 them. Should they prove, from the length of the abdominal 

 canal, to belong to Sarcoborina, as their colours indicate, they 

 will occupy a place between the Opsarions and the Loaches. 



* Nothing is more easy, or more common because it is easy, than to an- 

 nounce as discoveries the startling results of immature inquiry into obscure 

 subjects ; yet when we consider the comparatively small amount of real dis- 

 covery solely attributable to Newton, compared with the extent of his appli- 

 cation, and how seldom a Newton appears, we should always receive with 

 suspicion the supposed discoveries of persons, who, from their frequent ap- 

 pearance in public, and the number of their occupations, argue a sad defi- 

 ciency in all those qualities essential to the promotion of any science. 



f Cyp. Dero, Buch. Gang. Fis., pi. xxii. f. 78. Cyp. Morula, id., pi. 

 xviii. f. 91. Cyp.joalius, id. op. cit. 316. Cyp. Pausius, id. loc. cit. 



