SPINED LOCHE. 381 



ABDOMIMAL 



MALACOPTERYGIL CYPRINW^. 



THE SPINED LOCHE. GROUNDLING. 



Botia txnia, J. E. Gray, Zool. Misc. p. 8. 



Cobitis ,, LiNNffius. Block, pt. i. pi. 31, fig. 2. 



,, ,, Berkenhout's Syn. 3rd edit. vol. i. p. 79. 



,, ,, Spinous Loche, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 381. 



,, ,, Groundling, Turton, Brit. Faun. p. 103, sp. 90. 



„ „ ,, Flem. Brit. An. p. 189, sp. 70. 



Generic Characters. — Body ovate, lanceolate, compressed, with small scales ; 

 head and operculum naked, with a large spine just behind each nostril ; mouth 

 small ; nose produced ; dorsal fin moderate, medial, opposite the ventral fins ; 

 anal fin short. 



I HAVE adopted tlie generic distinction proposed by Mr. 

 J. E. Gray as it applies to one European species, and to the 

 first eight out of the twelve species described by Dr. F. B. 

 Hamilton, in his account of the Fishes of the Ganges, pages 

 350 to 359. The spine, which is forked and movable, 

 situated behind the nostril and below each eye in the species 

 of the genus Botia, is an organic difference formed by the 

 suborbital bone, which distinguishes them from the unarmed 

 species of the old genus Cobitis. 



The Spined Loche is much more rare than that last de- 

 scribed. Berkenhout, in his Synopsis of the Natural His- 



