114 Mr. J. M'Clelland on Indian Cyprinidae. 



Tlie most remarkable characteristic of rasorial birds is their 

 shortness of wing, terrestrial habits, and conseqnent strength 

 and size of their legs, which are formed for the principal sup- 

 port -of the body, and in some almost supersede the use of 

 wings. It may be thought difficult to find among fishes a 

 terrestrial type ; but as water is the natural element of this 

 class, so the ocean is its metropohs ; and those kinds that are 

 confined to rivers and the intei-ior of continents may be safely 

 looked upon as more terrestrial than the rest, and consequently 

 so far equivalent in their habits to rasorial birds ; and while 

 there is no instance of rasorial birds possessed of aquatic habits, 

 or, as Swainson observes, "frequenting water or even its vici- 

 nity*," so no species of Cyprirndte is known to belong to the 

 sea. In India the Ct/prmidce are exclusively confined to fresh 

 water, mostly keeping beyond the influence of the tides ; thus 

 evincing a propensity for land analogous to that of Rasores. 



35. There is perhaps no point better settled in comparative 

 anatomy, than that the pectorals of fishes represent the upper 

 extremities of the higher classes of animals ; short pectorals 

 may therefore be said to be equivalent to short wings in birds ; 

 but it is a question of much interest to determine fully how 

 this applies to the case before us, and if it is to be relied upon 

 as a true analog}'. 



In the Frog and several reptiles the scapula has been found 

 by Cuvier and Geoffrey to be composed of two osseous pieces, 

 agreeing with the two upper bones of the posterior frame or 

 jamb of the branchial aperture in fishes ; and a third or lower 

 bone assists in forming a girdle to which the pectoral fins are 

 fixed in Siluridce and most fishes of the same order, with the 

 exception of the Ct/prinidce, and particularly the herbivorous 

 section of the family (Paonojnincs) . These bones were found 

 by the most satisfactory analysis to represent the humerus, or 

 bone which gives support to the third row of quill- feathers in 

 birds. Below this bone there is a stylet, which in Cyprins is 

 merely rudimental. It was found by Cvivier to represent the 

 ulna and radius, or in other words, to be equivalent to the cu- 

 bitus or bone which sustains the secondary quills in the wings 

 of birds. 



36. Thus two bones, which in birds constitute the larger 

 portion of the wing, may be said to be almost deficient in her- 

 bivorous Cyprins, though they are more developed in many 

 species of the carnivorous section of the family, and still more 

 complete and uniform in other families of the same order, as 

 Siluridfe. 



37. It is hardly necessary to enter into further analysis to 



* Geog. Dist. and Class, of Animals, p. 2.J9. 



