INDIAN CYPRINID. 453 
macrolepis, 0. c. t. x. f. 2. appears to resemble very much a species figured 
in Buchanan’s collection under the name of Cyprinus tor, which is however. 
according to Buchanan, a large fish, while Heckel’s species is only five inches 
long. I now come to M. Heckel’s new genus Schizothorax, Etym. yiéw 
split (spalten) Owoas a shield (panzer), from a membranous gusset in front of 
the anal fin, thus separating the scales slightly on either side of the vent; a 
character which I have overlooked in my genus Oreinus. I regard this curi- 
ous peculiarity as an indication of some remarkable function or analogy. 
When in addition to this singular structure the scales on either side of the 
anal are enlarged, as in all M. v. Heckel’s species, the character may be con- 
spicuous enough ; but in the three species I have met with, the scales, as in most 
Cyprinide, continue to diminish progressively from the sides to the hinder 
part of the body, where they are smallest: the membranous cleft however 
is perceptible; I would therefore regard those species whose scales are not 
enlarged on either side of the anal cleft, as still belonging to the sub- 
genus Oreinus, especially as M. v. Heckel observes with regard to Cyprinus 
Richardsonu, Gray, which I had ranked with the latter group, that it agrees 
nearly with his Schizothorax plagiostomus, but as the great scales near the 
anal appear from the figure to be wanting, it cannot be included in that 
genus (see note, Fisch. Casch. p. 16). Instead of the sub-genus Oreinus being 
ranked under the head of the Barbels of Cuvier, as it stands in the pre- 
ceding pages, it should now become a sub-genus of M. v. Heckel’s new 
group, of which the following are the characters :— 
ScHIzoTHORAX, Heckel. 
Four cirri, one at each angle of the mouth and two at the middle of the maxillary bones; 
dorsal and anal short, the first preceded by a bony ray serrated behind ; scales small; the latter 
part of the belly terminating in a membranous space, in which the vent is placed, bounded laterally 
by large scales, which also encircle the base of the anal fin. 
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