364 INDIAN CYPRINID&. Peonomine. 
The length of the head to that of the body is as one to four, the back is 
arched gradually from the snout to the dorsal, ventral margin nearly straight, 
depth about a third of the length, forty-three scales along the lateral line, and 
fourteen in an oblique row from the base of the ventrals to the dorsum. The 
head is thick and fleshy ; the eyes small, and the lips loose and pendulous. 
The pectorals and ventrals are of about equal size. The fin rays are, 
DOF PAL VO AR Caos 
The colour above is dark olive-brown, below’ yellowish white. The 
snout is perforated with numerous large mucous pores, and intersected by 
many deep wrinkles. ‘The specimen here described was found by Mr. 
Hodgson, by whom it was presented to the Asiatic Society. The Nepura of 
the Assamese I found as low as Bishenath, where the current is slow, and the 
bottom sandy ; here its colour is deep bliie on the back. It is small, and 
very rarely met with in Lower Assam; but above the rapids Mr. Griffith says 
it is very common, and attains a large size, and that the fins and tail are 
dusky, the body below white, above olive-green. He also observes that it 
refuses all kinds of bait and flies, although like Catastomus dyocheilus, with 
which it associates, it is frequently seen plunging on the surface. 
Remarks on the Genus. 
The striking peculiarity of this group consists in the great length of 
the alimentary canal, and uniformly herbivorous habits of nearly all the 
species. Their short and feeble fins adapt them to such waters as contain 
the greatest abundance of plants, from which alone they derive their food. 
In the numerous dissections I have made of them, Cyprinus mrigala is the 
only one in which I found a trace of any animal remains in the intestines or 
stomach. Except the last species described, they are confined chiefly to jeels and 
ponds, but they are also found in the large rivers where the currents are slow ; 
but they never, I believe, descend with the rivers to within the influence of 
