INDIAN CYPRINIDiE. 



239 



the ulna and radius, or, in other words, to be equivalent to the cubitus 

 or bone which sustains the secondary quills in the wings of birds. 



36. Thus, two bones which in birds constitute the larger portion of the 

 wing, may be said to be almost deficient in herbivorous Cyprins, though 

 they are more developed in many species of the carnivorous section of 

 the family, and still more complete and uniform in other families of the 

 same order, as Siluridee, 



37. It is hardly necessary to enter into farther analysis to prove that 

 the pectorals of Cyprinidce in general, but particularly of herbivorous 

 Cyprins, are less complete than those of neighbouring groups ; for we are 

 at once struck with the fact, on observing the small size of the pectoral 

 fins in all our Peeonomince, and the slenderness of the rays of which they 

 are composed ; while the large clumsy rays of the ventrals, and the strength 

 of these fins, are circumstances that cannot be overlooked, and which, when 

 viewed in comparison with the strong and fully developed legs of Rasores 

 (34) supply all that is essential in the analogies between the groups in 

 question. 



38. In the most carnivorous species of Sarcohorinee on the other hand, and 

 especially in some of the Opsarions, as O. poUoxus, and O. 'pholiceplialus;^ 

 remarkable instances are observed of excessive development in the pectoral 

 fins, and this is always as far as I have seen, attended with a proportionate 

 want of size in the ventrals, which are so slender and small in this genus, and 

 their structure so delicate, as to render it hardly possible to conceive that they 

 can be of much use in aiding the movements of the body. Now the widely 

 cleft mouth or beak, great breadth of wings or pectorals, obsolete ventrals or 

 feet, are common to Opsarions and Fissirostres, so that the first would thus 



* t. 47, f. 2, 3. 



