274 CYPEINIDJE. 



8. NEMACHILUS. 



Colitis, part., Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 499 (176G) ; Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Poiss. xviii. 



p. 1 (1846). 

 Nemachilus, Van Hasselt, Algem. Konst- en Letterb. ii. 1823, p. 133 ; Grunther, Cat. Fish. vii. 



p. 347 (1868) ; Herzenstein, Wiss. Res. Przewalski Reis., Zool. iii. Fische, p. 1 (1888). 

 Diplophysa, Kessler, in Fedschenko's Reise,, ii. p. 57 (1874). 



Body elongate and feebly compressed, naked or with minute scales. Lateral line 

 along the middle of the side. Mouth small, inferior, surrounded by a circular lip ; 

 three pairs of barbels, two on the snout and one at the sides of the mouth. 

 Suborbitals small, without spine. Gill-openings restricted to the sides. Dorsal fin short, 

 with 10 to 17 rays, opposite to the ventral s or just behind the vertical of the latter. 

 Anal fin short, with 7 to 9 rays. Pharyngeal teeth small, pointed and more or less 

 distinctly hooked, in a single series. Air-bladder entirely or partially enclosed in a 

 bony capsule open at the sides. 



Frontal and parietal bones embracing a large fontanelle. Coracoids widely separated 

 from each other, the symphysis of the pectoral arch being formed entirely by the 

 clavicles. Vertebrae 35 to 42. Intestinal canal more or less elongate, forming one or 

 several convolutions. 



Until quite recently, the range of this large genus of about sixty species, of which 

 our British Loach, iV. barbatula, L., is the type, was believed to be confined to 

 Europe and Asia. Several species occur in Syria, and it is to one of these, jV. leontince, 

 Lortet, that the N. abyssinicus discovered by Mr. E. Degen in Lake Tsana appears to 

 be most nearly related. The addition of a Loach to the African fish-fauna is one of the 

 most interesting results of Mr. Degen' s visit to Lake Tsana. 



1. NEMACHILUS ABYSSINICUS. 



(Plate XLVIIL fig. 6.) 



Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (7) x. 1902, p. 437. 



Depth of body seven times in the total length, length of head five times. Head 

 feebly compressed behind, twice as long as broad. Snout a little shorter than the 

 postorbital part of the head, a little depressed ; eye five and a half times in the length 

 of the head, three-fifths the interorbital width ; longest barbels twice the diameter of 

 the eye. Dorsal fin with 10 rays, a little nearer the caudal fin than the occiput, 

 originating immediately behind the vertical of the root of the ventral, middle rays 



