244 INDIAN CYPRINIDZ. 
bones of the jaw are soft and flexible. The limbs of this organ are round and 
slender in Cobitis prop., but firmly united in front by means of two ex- 
panded apophyses, while in Schistura they are flat and obliquely inclined to 
each other, so as to form by means of their inner edges a lengthened symphysis. 
43. Thus we appear to have three primary types; the first distinguishes 
the Cirrhins, Labeos, and probably Catastoms; a second is peculiar to the 
Barbels, Opsarions, and numerous other genera; and a third is seen in the 
Gudgeons. From these three types being so prominently developed in the 
Peonomine, while one principle chiefly seems to run through all the Sarcoborine, 
it is perfectly legitimate to conclude even from this circumstance alone, that 
the former should be the most perfect group of the two, and that its species 
should consequently be endowed with more diversified instincts; hence, al- 
though a vegetable regimen is the great characteristic of the Peonomine, 
still many of the species are omnivorous, and this is to be expected, especially 
among the Cirrhins and the true Carps (Cyprinus prop. Cuv). The Barbels, 
however, as well perhaps as the Breams which appear to be peculiar to Europe, 
seem to partake more of carnivorous habits, and therefore must be held as the 
sub-typical, while the Cirrhins are the typical*, and the Gudgeons and 
Gonorhynchs from their possessing in the greatest perfection the single 
instinct for a tendency to which the Peonomine are most remarkable, viz. 
subsisting exclusively on a vegetable regimen, are as unquestionably the 
aberrant forms of Peonomine ; on the other hand the rapacious habits of the 
Sarcoborine mark them so conspicuously as a sub-typical group, correspond- 
ing as they do with the habit of that group in devouring other animals, 
that it is unnecessary in this place to offer a remark in support of a 
fact so plain. 
* The Cirrhins being the most perfect forms of a typical group, are strictly, in the language 
of Mr. Swainson, py'e-eminently typical. 
