90 CLASS XIV. 



bladder connected with the labyrinth by a set of ossicles, con- 

 stricted in the middle or divided into an anterior and a posterior. 



a) No scales. 



Aulopyge HECKEL. (Cirri four, moderate. Uro-genital aper- 

 ture and vent in females at the apex of a fleshy process connate 

 with the anterior part of the anal fin.) 



Sp. Aulopyge Hilgelii HECKEL, Abbildungen und Besckreibungen der Fische 

 Syriens, Stuttgart, 1843, 8vo - ( aus BUSSEGGEB'S Reisen abgedruckt) s. 31 ; 

 Dalmatia and Bosnia. 



This fish, which I have not seen, is regarded by HECKEL as a form inter- 

 mediate between Cobitis barbatula and Cyprinus Barbus. 



b) Body scaly. 



Gobitis L. (excl. of some species). Body scarcely narrowed at 

 the tail, elongate, covered with small scales, mucose. Mouth eden- 

 tulous, guarded with (6 10) cirri. Fins all unarmed, ventral 

 remote, placed under the dorsal fin. 



Mud-creeper. The swimming-bladder in most lies in a bony cavity, which 

 is attached to the third vertebra (see WEBER, de Aure animal, aquatilium, 

 pp. 63, 64, Tab. vi., ROSENTHAL Ichthyot. Tafeln, Taf. x. fig. 8, OWEN 

 Hornol. &c. PL i. fig. 7). LINNAEUS in his genus Cobitis counted three 

 species which belong here. {Cobitis Anableps and Cob. heteroclita L. must 

 be referred to other genera.) These three species are : Cobitis barbatula L. 

 (FRIES, EKSTROEM och SUNDEVALL, Skandinaviens Fiskar, Tab. 53), Cob. 

 tcenia L., and Cob. fossilis, all European ; but subsequently many species 

 of this genus have been discovered in different parts of Asia. They are 

 all fresh-water fishes, of which few surpass 6" in length. Cobitis fossilis L. 

 (BLOCH Ichth. Tab. 31, fig. i), comes to the surface of the water when the 

 weather is changing, and is very tenacious of life ; this fish gulps in air, 

 abstracts from it the oxygen, and gives out carbonic acid gas by the vent 1 . 

 In these species the caudal fin is roundish, but there are also exotic species 

 with a forked caudal fin (Schistura MACCLELLAND). In a species from 

 Syria, described by VALENCIENNES under the name of Cobitis malapterura, 

 there is a fold of skin on the back like the rudiment of a second dorsal or 

 adipose fin, which recalls the preceding family. Compare however HECKEL, 

 who attaches little importance to the fold. Fische Syriens, p. 151. 



See CZERNAY Notice sur le Cobitis merga KRTNICKII, Bulletin de la Soc. 

 Imp. des natur. de Moscou, i. pp. 548. 549, Tab. vm. fig. i. 



1 See on this intestinal respiration ERMAN in GIBERT'S Annalen, Bd. xxx. 1808, 

 s. 140159. 



