INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



235 



Linnaeus when he compared ruminating quadrupeds to gallinaceous birds,* 

 both of which evince the greatest intelligence, docility, and contentment 

 under the domestication of man." Appendages to the head, whether in the 

 shape of horns, crests, or fleshy protuberances, and the property of affording 

 wholesome and nutritious food, and otherwise contributing to the ease and 

 support of man, are according to Swainson the chief attributes of the type 

 to which the above analogy refers. 



30. The Elephant, horned cattle, domestic poultry, etc. are common 

 instances of the type alluded to, and if we compare their properties in 

 their respective circles, with the Cyprinidce in the order of abdominal mala- 

 copterygians, we may venture perhaps to look upon that family as the equi- 

 valent in its circle, to other rasorial groups in theirs. 



31. The mouth of Cyp. Calhasus, Buch. is small, and directed downwards, 

 the anterior lip is compressed by a pendulous muscular snout to which 

 four short muscular cirri, different from the nervous filaments of Siluridce 

 are attached,! and the posterior lip is fixed to the ligamentous union of 

 the transverse apophyses of the lower jaw. In the Cirrhins the lower 

 jaw is composed of two short branches or bony limbs, obliquely inclined 

 towards each other from their articulation to the blunt apex of the jaw, 

 where they are united by ligaments instead of symphysis at the approxi- 



* Such analogies were, as Mr. Macleay has shewn, known to Aristotle, by whom however, as well 

 as all subsequent writers up to the time of Mr. Macleay himself, they were mistaken for affinities. 



t The cirri of Cyprinidca are soft and capable of being contracted and elongated, as well 

 as the loose muscular appendages of the snout to which they are attached, particularly in the 

 genus Cirrhinus Cuv. ; but in Pimelodus aor, Buch. and most of the Siluridce I find the cirri are 

 fiat and cartilaginous, with a groove on either edge for the protection of a large nerve, an artery, 

 and a vein. A cirrus so constructed is incapable of muscular action, and is strictly an organ 

 of sense only, and not of prehension as in Cyprinidte, and ought to be called a filament. 



