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A Notice of Indian Cyprinidae. . 95 
The genus Perilampus, from Heguiaunw, to irradiate, or shine 
brilliantly, is thus distinguished. ‘Head small, obliquely raised 
above the axis of the body; dorsal placed opposite toa larger 
anal; apices of the jaws raised to a line with the dorsum, which 
is straight; the ventral margin is much arched; sides usually 
streaked with blue; fins without spinous rays. Obs. In this 
genus the intestine is small, and very little longer than the body. 
‘The species all subsist exclusively on insects, which they seize 
by leaping above the surface. They vary from two to four 
inches in length.” 
The third genus of our author, is Opsarius, from owaguy, pisci- 
culus, a small fish; its characters are thus defined. ‘“ Mouth 
widely cleft; body slender, and usually marked with transverse 
green streaks or spots; dorsal small without spines, and placed 
behind the middle, and long, lower margin of the body more arch- 
ed than the upper. Obs. Intestine very short, and extends al- 
Most straight from the stomach to the vent.” 
In the genera of this subfamily, the mouth is situated directly 
Opposite to the position it had in the former. They are all insec- 
tivorous—the Opsarions, which also devour smaller species of 
fishes, particularly gudgeons, are so voracious, that ‘it is no un- 
common thing to find an Opsarion so overgorged that the tail of its 
prey remains protruding from the mouth, to be swallowed after 
that portion which is capable of being received into the capacious 
Stomach is sufficiently digested to admit of the introduction of 
the remainder.” Another striking distinction between the indi- 
viduals of these two subfamilies, is pointed out to us in their 
colors. ‘“'The whole of the subfamily Peonomine are remark- 
able for their unifornily plain colors, consisting of olive green, 
bluish gray, or brown, extended along the back, and softened off 
on the sides so as to leave the lower surface of the body an im- 
pure white, partaking more or less of the colors of the back.” 
“Of the species, not one possesses a brilliant spot of any pure 
Color.” But as we leave the herbivorous group and enter the 
Carnivorous, we find numerous bright, dark spots, and the oper- 
cula and fins to be stained with yellow and red, in deep and natu- 
tal tints; and the more carnivorous the genera the more remark- 
able is the brilliancy of their colors. 
The third subfamily, is called Apalopterine, from axclos, soft, 
and ategoy, a fin or wing. It “consists of those genera, the spe- 
hy 
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