Mr. J. McClelland on Indian Cyprinidae. 11L> 



spicuously as a subtypical group, corresponding as they do 

 with the habit of that group in devouring other animals, that 

 it is unnecessary in this place to offer a remark in support of 

 a fact so plain. 



44. The consideration of the third or aberrant grouj) in 

 Cypr'miihe involves some points which will not be so clear to 

 those who have not studied the principles of natural classi- 

 iication. This group should possess three types, and these 

 should be so related as to form a circle of affinities among 

 themselves. This property has suggested the following pro- 

 position to Mr. Swainson, which tends to reconcile some di- 

 versity of opinion that formerly prevailed as to the number of 

 primary types : — "The primary circular divisions of every 

 group are three actually, or five apparently." The three 

 aberrant types are named by Mr. Vigors (' Linn. Transac.,' 

 vol. xiv.) from the corresponding groups in ornithology, na- 

 tatorial, suctorial, and rasorial^^. The third type I find to be 

 represented by the Loaches ; but before we enter into a consi- 

 deration of that part of the subject, it is necessary to point out 

 the two first types, which I ha\e already only alluded to ; this 

 I must do by entering into more particulars than may seem 

 to be necessary. 



45. Buchanan, in defining his ninth division of the old ge- 

 nus Cyprinus, which is composed of Gonorhynchs, as I have 

 already pointed out, gave them the barbarous name of Grtrr«, 

 and compares their habits to those of the Loaches, and ob- 

 serves that they are called Balitora, or sand-diggers, by the 

 natives ; a name, I may observe, which in Assam, and I pre- 

 sume also in Bengal, is applied to Loaches only. Indeed the 

 Gonorhynchs, or Garra of Buchanan, are peculiar to moun- 

 tains, from whence they are driven down during floods, and 

 do not extend beyond the rapids that skirt their base ; so that 

 they can scarcely be said to be entitled to an}' Bengal name. 

 In this group Mr. Gray detected a new genus, to which I wish 

 he had given a more appropriate name than Balitora ; for in- 

 dependently of the species being different from any of those 

 described by Buchanan, and supposed by him to be the Ba- 

 litora of the natives, Mr. Gray's genus is peculiar to moun- 

 tain-torrents, the beds of which are usually rocky rather than 

 sandy : for this reason, as well as from the fact of the Balitora 

 of Gray forming a new type, distinguished by a flat head and 



* As these terms have been applied conclitioiially by Mr. Swainson to 

 MammuVia, I need make no apology for followinn; the example of so good 

 an authority in applying them to fishes. Indeed I have been guided en- 

 tirely by the views of Mr. MacLeay, as exhibited in the ' Liniijean Transac- 

 tions,' and the works of Mr. Swainson, from beginning to end of this paper. 



