Mr. J. McClelland on Indian Cyprinidag. 193 



living chiefly on sandy and muddy bottoms, or in jeels amidst 

 aquatic vegetation. 



How nicely does all this correspond with the character of 

 rasorial birds and quadrupeds given by Swainson ! "Their 

 toes are never united so as to be used for swimming, a pecu- 

 liarity which confines them to dry land or to climbing among 

 trees.^' " This is the type/' says the philosophical observer 

 just alluded to, " so remarkable for the greatest development 

 of tail, and for those appendages for ornament or defence 

 which decorate the head. If we went through the whole class 

 of birds and selected those beginning with the Peacock, 

 wherein the tail was most conspicuous either for its size or 

 for the beauty of its colours, we should unknowingly fix upon 

 those birds which analysis has already demonstrated to be ra- 

 sorial types. The same results would attend a similar selec- 

 tion of quadrupeds and of winged insects ; all these collec- 

 tively would furnish many hundred proofs by which the uni- 

 formity of this type is preserved : appendages to the head, 

 whether in the shape of horns, crests, or fleshy protuberances, 

 are no less a prevalent character of the group now before us*." 



48. These peculiarities will be found exactly to apply to 

 Cohitis prop., which I shall now prove. 



First with regard to tail, the Loaches are the only group of 

 Cyprinidce in which the caudal is not bifid or divided by a fis- 

 sure into two lobes, reducing its size and power as an organ 

 for propelling the body forward ; and on the tails of several, 

 especially Cobitis pavonacea, J. M.f, we have even the zoned 

 or eye-like spots exactly resembling those of the Peacock, 

 although no instance of the kind is to be found in any other 

 group of Cyprinidce : and in all Loaches the caudal is barred 

 and otherwise ornamented, while that of every other species 

 in the same family is perfectly plain J. 



Next, as to soft appendages to the head, the Loaches sur- 

 pass every other group in the same family in the number and 

 uniformity of these appendages ; and lastly, the Loaches and 

 Schisturte present the very extraordinary relation to the tribe 

 of Ruminants, and especially to the Cervidce, or Stags, in hav- 

 ing articulated to the orbitar process of the frontal bone on 

 either side, a formidable horn which can be raised at pleasure 



* Geog. Dist. and Class. Quad., p. 258. t PI- 52. f. 1. 



J This as well as all similar analogies afforded by the structure of Ci/pri- 

 7;iV/« were developed in the course of my examination of species, before 1 had 

 ventured to form any general views on the subject, and even before I had 

 studied those of Mr. MacLeay, or perused tlie works of Mr. Swainson, 

 which have taught me the importance of chai'acters, which although noted, 

 I felt totallj' at a loss how to use. 



Ann. Sj Mag. N. Hist. Vol.vm. O 



