INDIAN CYPRINID^. 223 



food, I found, as might be expected, the greatest development of intestinal 

 canal ; in these the mouth is invariably either horizontal or directed down- 

 wards, as in the Cirrhins ; all such types I have included under the head of 

 Pceonomince or herbivorous Carps, of which the Gudgeons and Gonorhynchs 

 are the most remarkable. 



5. In the last mentioned genera the mouth is situated completely under 

 the head, and is constructed in the Gudgeons for bruising soft vegetable 



"Of birds, I observed about sixty species of Falconidce, about 150 Insessores, and about 74 

 Grallce, including many rare Tantalidce, and the species of Ciconia recently described as C. cristata, 

 which appears to have been named nearly 30 years ago by Buchanan Ardea crinita ; all which, in 

 addition to the fishes, are drawn in duplicate, thus amounting to about 900 drawings." Although 

 Buchanan was professedly a botanist, his researches appear to have extended to all branches of 

 natural history except entomology. His volumes on Gangetic Fishes, published at his own expense, 

 under the disadvantage of being deprived of the greater part of his figures, are the only part of his 

 zoological labours that are known, yet his inquiries in other branches of zoology were equally exten- 

 sive, and equally intitled to publicity. It now appears that two quarto volumes of MSS. written with 

 his usual erudition, have been retained in the Library of the Botanic Garden since 1815, while every 

 periodical that has since appeared deprived him of some portion of those claims to priority which his 

 papers ought to have secured to him had they been placed in proper hands, or deposited in an institu- 

 tion where their existence could have been known or appreciated. 



Had such an injury to the advancement of information resulted from an oversight in an ordinary 

 public oIBce, the circumstance would excite less surprise ; but that the works of a naturalist should 

 be so treated in a public Institution expressly intended for the promotion of science, is so 

 unaccountable to me, that I cannot presume to express an opinion on the subject. But as the case 

 stands, perhaps the best remedy that can now be applied in justice to Buchanan, as well as to 

 others who are still engaged in scientific pursuits, would be to give a complete edition of his labours, 

 botanical and zoological, to the public, at the same time it is right to say that no atonement can now 

 make amends for the injury that has been inflicted on Buchanan as a naturalist, or for the time that 

 lias been lost in allowing others to go over unnecessarily the ground which he investigated, instead of 

 beginning where he left oiF. 



