A REVIEW OF THE COBITID.E. OR LOACHES OF THE 

 RIVERS OF JAPAN. 



By David Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler, 



Of the Leland Stanford Junior UmrerHlty. 



In t^e present paper is given an account of the species of Oobitid^ 

 small lishes known m English as loach, in Japanese as Dojo, recorded 

 trom the streams and lakes of Japan. It is based on the collections 

 made by Messrs. Jordan and Snyder in 1900, preserved in the U S 

 J National Museum and in the collections of Leland Stanford Junior 

 University. The plates are by Mrs. Chloe Lesley Starks. 



Family COBITID^E. 



Body more or less elongate, oblong, compressed, or cylindrical, but 

 never depressed. Head depressed or compressed; snout more or less 

 fleshy, blunt, inferior; the lips fleshy and furnished with from *> to 12 

 barnels. Pharyngeal teeth few, in one row and in moderate numl)er- 

 no pseudobranchise. Scales small, rudimentary, or entirelv absent- 

 cycloid, when present, usually immersed in raucous skin, and rarely 

 present on the head. Lateral line single; air vessel entirelv or par- 

 tially inclosed m bone. Vertical fins spineless, the dorsal ravs varying 

 from 8 to 30, the anal with about 7 or 8, and the ventrals sometimes 

 absent. Small fishes confined to the rivers of the Old World in Europe 

 ^and Asia. They are used as food. 

 a. No erectile opines below the eye. 

 /'. Barbels 10 or 12; 4 about the mandible; dorsal, short; caudal n.unded; lateral 

 line medium . ir- i 



I'O. liarbels 6 or 8; none about the mandible. 

 c. Barbels 8, a pair of nasal barbels l^eing present; dorsal short; caudal n.unded; 



lateral line obsolete ^Y.c/.s 2. 



re. Barbels 6, no nasal barbels being present; dorsal fin short; caudal fin trun- 

 cate; lateral line median Ortlirias 3. 



aa. An erectile spine below the eye. 



d. Caudal fin rounded; lateral line incomplete; dorsal short Cobitis, 4. 



dd. Caudal fin deeply forked. 

 e. Barbels 6; body rather robust; lateral line complete; dorsal rather long. 



Uymenophysa, 5. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVI-No. 1332. 



765 



