﻿254 GANGETic FISHES. Order V. 



There are scarcely any scales, or at least they are so thin and 

 transparent that I could not distinguish any with certainty. 

 The ribs are discernible through the integuments. The vent is 

 behind the middle. The lateral line runs straight along the 

 upper part of the side. 



The fin on the back is behind the middle, and contains thir- 

 teen rays. The pectoral fins are very small, each having 

 twelve rays. The ventral fins do not reach to the vent, and 

 each has seven rays. The first fin behind the vent has thir- 

 teen, and the second has four rays. The fin of the tail is di- 

 vided into two lobes, and contains about eighteen rays. 



XIX. Genus. — Cyprinodon. 



Fishes of the fifth order, with an oblong, scaly, much com- 

 pressed body, having both edges blunt ; with one fin near the 

 middle of the back ; and with teeth in both jaws. 



This genus has a very different appearance from the Esox, 

 but a well defined characteristic difference is not easily dis- 

 covered. 



1st Species. — Cyprinodon cundinga. 

 A Cyprinodon with the last ray of the dorsal fin very long. 

 This fish, I believe, is the Clupea Cyprinoides of Bloch, 

 {Tchth. Tome XII. p. 24, PI. CCCCIII.) Bonnaterre, [Tabl. 

 Encycl. p. 187, PL LXXV. Fig. 314,) and La Cepede, {Hist, 

 des Poissons, Tome V. p. 458,) although these authors, all, I 

 suppose, copying from Broussonnet, give twenty-two rays in 

 the membranes of the gill-covers, seventeen in the fin of the 

 back, and twenty-five in that behind the vent. 



Our fish seems undoubtedly to be the same with the Kun- 

 dinga of Dr Russell, (Indian Fishes, No. 203.) I cannot in- 

 clude it in the genus Clupea, because the ridge of its belly is 



