THE LOACH FAMILY. MOLINISEA. 



365 



(296.) The sub-family PcecilincB contains a few 

 freshwater fishes (P. multilineata Le Sueur, fig. $6.), 



of very small 

 ^^ size, peculiar to 



America. In 

 outward appear- 

 ance they bear 

 very little re- 

 semblance to the 

 ordinary loaches, 

 except, indeed, in the breadth and thickness of their 

 tail. M. Cuvier, however, attests that they are also 

 viviparous ; and, as he places them close to the Cobites, 

 we have been induced to do the same. These genera, 

 obviously allied to each other more than to the typical 

 loaches, have some few of the characters belonging to 

 this family : their mouth is very small ; the lips are 

 fleshy ; and the eyes close to the snout, which is small 

 and horizontally flattened : on the other hand, they have 

 no cirri — a circumstance which shows they are not 

 ground-feeders. Their body is broad, oval, and often 

 very high in the middle ; and the dorsal fin, in the 

 typical genus Molinisea {M. latipinna Le Sueur, fig. 

 97'), is so remarkably developed, that we consider this 



genus as a representation of the riband-fish, more 

 especially as their eyes and gill-covers are very large. 



