INDIAN CYPRINID^. 237 



valent to cutting teeth ;* but in the Cirrhins even this is quite deficient. Nor 

 does the analogy between these fishes and proboscidian quadrupeds end here ; 

 the presence of cutting teeth implies a strong solid union of the two bony limbs 

 of the lower jaw at the symphysis for their insertion, but in the Edentates and 

 Elephants the symphysis is remarkably feeble ; the two sides of the jaw being 

 nearly separated by a deep fissure almost detaching its limbs from each other, 

 as actually occurs in the Cirrhins, with which I include Labeos, which are also 

 furnished with similar prehensile organs in the form of thick pendulous lips. 

 So many corresponding circumstances between animals so remote from each 

 other in the scale of aflEinity, cannot be referred merely to coincidence, but 

 rather to a law of symbolical representation, by which the same type appears 

 throughout an infinity of forms in the several classes. 



34. If CyprinidcB be a rasorial group, as the above analogies of their most 

 perfect forms with rasorial quadrupeds would seem to indicate, the same rela- 

 tions should appear on contrasting them with other classes, the corresponding 

 points becoming more striking or faint in proportion as the groups with which 

 they are compared are contiguous or remote from them ; therefore, as birds are 

 nearer to fishes than quadrupeds, the comparison of analogous types between 

 these classes should afford more striking results than those I have cited. 



The most remarkable characteristic of rasorial birds is their shortness 

 of wing, terrestrial habits, and consequent strength and size of their legs, 

 which are formed for the principal support of the body, and in some almost 



* Mr. Evans pointed out to me a peculiarity, for which he could see no object, in our skeleton 

 of an Indian Rhinoceros, consisting of two minute incisors scarcely larger than those of a Rabbit, 

 and hardly projecting from the alveolar ; yet these teeth, so small as to be utterly unfit for any 

 useful purpose, are found in every individual of the species. We can only regard these, and all such 

 organs of which the animal kingdom presents innumerable examples, as the characters by which 

 nature distinguishes her various types. 



