326 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
but distinguished by a remarkable type of squamation. Above and 
on each side of the anus and anal fin is a band of enlarged scales 
differentiated from the others and forming a kind of sheath into 
which the base of the anal fin is concealed. In other respects there 
is little difference from the true barbels; there are, as in them, three 
rows of pharyngeal teeth in the typical forms, but in others there are 
only two; the number of barbels varies, some species having four, 
others two, and the remaining none. 
About fifty species representing ten or a dozen genera are known, 
the principal being Schizothorax, which contains about a score of 
species. 
Species of this genus are very voracious.: J. McClelland (1838) 
claimed “‘ that it is no uncommon thing to find ” one “ 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 intro- 
duction of the remainder.” He had seen fishes “so often in this 
state’ that he presumed “ they are easier caught in it than in any 
other.” 
SoME CHINESE CyPRINIDS. 
Another type is noteworthy on account of the singularity of ap- 
pearance as well as the size of the few species. The forehead or 
interorbital region is high upraised and arched, and consequently 
the eyes are abnormally low down on the sides. This inferior posi- 
tion of the eyes has given name to the genus (Hypophthalmichthys) 
Fic. 85.—Hypophihalmichthys nobilis. After Steindachner. 
and group or sub-family which it represents (Hypothalmichthyines). 
Another remarkable peculiarity is the structure of the gill-rakers 
in association with a peculiar superbranchial shell-like organ which 
