Gobio. INDIAN CYPRINID&. 349 
the Catla is one of the commonest fish in Bengal, Buchanan remarks that it is 
unknown in most parts of Behar. If a little attention were directed to the 
extirpation of Alligators, and other destructive animals in our tanks, there 
is no limit to the extent to which this, and similar useful species might be 
_ propagated. 
IV.—GeEn. GOBIO. 
The Gudgeons, according to Cuvier, have both the dorsal and anal short, and 
are without spinous rays in any of the fins, or cirri to the mouth. As, however, 
we have some Indian species with two cirri, it is necessary to omit the 
consideration of those appendages in the characters of the genus, otherwise 
well marked by the lower jaw being shorter than the upper, without hav- 
ing the mouth directed downwards, as in the Gonorhynchs. The vent is 
placed close in front of the anal fin, and not between the ventrals, as in 
the Gonorhynchs; and in many of the species the liver is either altogether 
wanting, or dispersed in numerous small glands throughout the folds of the 
intestines. I have already remarked that cirri are very uncertain characters 
in this family, and that even among the Cirrhins themselves, a genus cha- 
racterised by these appendages, it is often difficult to say whether they are 
present or not; and in the closely allied group Labeo, cirri are altogether 
wanting, though, if we may judge from what appear to be Indian species of 
Labeo, their habits and structure in other respects hardly differ from the 
Cirrhins. The Gudgeons as I have limited the group, are strictly herbivorous, 
and surpass all other fishes of the family in the length of the alimentary canal, 
which is from eight to eleven lengths of the body, inclusive of the head and 
caudal fin, and is always filled with a soft green pulpy aliment. The stomach 
is a long tapering tube, and differs only from the rest of the canal in the 
longitudinal direction of its muscular fibres; the lower jaw is composed of 
two bones soldered together at the symphysis; the lips are hard, with a 
slight ridge on the upper surface of the lower one in many of the species, a 
Mm 
