236 



INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



mation of a slender apophysis from each side. Figs. 4, 5, W, 21, Plate 

 54, show the under side of the -right ramus of the lower jaw (natural 

 size) of four species, a, being the point of approximation with its fellow at 

 the chin, and b, the articulating extremity behind, 



32. This structure is evidently adapted to the habit of collecting fruits, 

 seeds, and other soft substances from the muddy and sandy bottoms 

 of indolent streams, in which loose detached objects of the kind are most 

 likely to occur, and where they may be easily collected without bodily effort 

 by means of these soft pendulous and prehensile organs attached to the 

 lips. If to these characters we add the great size of the species compared 

 with the rest of the family, and the plain dusky colour of the Cirrhins, 

 their analogy to the proboscidian types of quadrupeds seems almost com- 

 plete. But there are still other remarkable points of resemblance between 

 the Cirrhins and rasorial forms among the quadrupeds, in the deficiency 

 of teeth, and the weakness of the union of the two limbs of the lower jaw. 



33. In the Elephant this jaw is only formed for grinding such substances 

 as are introduced to the mouth by the proboscis ; there are no cutting teeth, 

 the use of which in gathering food being superseded by the trunk. In all ani- 

 mals possessed of such an organ, prehensile and cutting teeth appear to be less 

 prominent according to the degree of its development ; of this we have instances 

 in the Tapirs and Edentates. In the Sarcoborints the incisors and prehensile 

 teeth are represented by a formidable knob on the symphysis of the lower jaw, 

 and in the P(SonomincB, where even this symbol is wanting, we find such of the 

 genera as are without strong muscular appendages to the snout, furnished 

 with a cartilaginous rim to the mouth, which in some, as the Gonorhynchs, is 

 confined to the edge of the lower lip, as a covering or defence when employed 

 in detaching their peculiar food from the rocks to which it is fixed, and may 

 for this reason, be considered as the last semblance of a structure equi- 



