70 A Guide to the Zoological Collections 



different position of the anal fin. One species is known, 

 which occurs in the Atlantic, in the seas of India, and 

 in the south-western Pacific. 



Genus 9. Scopelengys : another deep-sea genus, of 

 which only one species is known. 



Genus 10. Odontostomus. This genus, which includes 

 two species — one from the Mediterranean, the other 

 from the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea — is alone 

 among Indian Scopclidoe in having the body scaleless : 

 its eyes have a very strong upward cast and its teeth 

 are most terrible. 



Family III. Cypvinidce [Cases 64-67 J. 



The Carps and Loaches are an exclusively fresh-water 

 family of enormous size, and are widely distributed 

 throughout the Old World and North America. The 

 Indian species alone number over 230. The family 

 being exposed to such wonderfully diversified conditions 

 of life, its members exhibit a corresponding diversity of 

 form. The widest departure from the typical carp form 

 is seen among those species, such as Oreinus, Schizo- 

 thorax, Ptychobarbus, and Diptychits, that live in the 

 spating rivers of Tibet, Kashmir, and of the Oxus system. 

 These forms, dwelling under conditions very similar to 

 those that have, in other regions, produced the Trout, 

 have come to, superficially, resemble Trout so closely 

 that European travellers habitually call them " trout," 

 though they are undoubted carps: this is particularly 

 the case with Ptychobarbus, which is even spotted like 

 a trout. 



The famous " Mahseer" is a carp of the Barbel kind. 



Most of the fishes eaten by Europeans up-country are 

 carps. 



The different kinds of " Gold-fish " are domesticated 



