244 



INDIAN CYPRINIDiE. 



bones of the jaw are soft and flexible. The limbs of this organ are round and 

 slender in Cobitis prop., but firmly united in front by means of two ex- 

 panded apophyses, while in Schistura they are flat and obliquely inclined to 

 each other, so as to form by means of their inner edges a lengthened symphysis. 



43. Thus we appear to have three primary types ; the first distinguishes 

 the Cirrhins, Labeos, and probably Catastoms ; a second is peculiar to the 

 Barbels, Opsarions, and numerous other genera; and a third is seen in the 

 Gudgeons. From these three types being so prominently developed in the 

 P(eonomince, while one principle chiefly seems to run through all the Sarcohorin<B, 

 it is perfectly legitimate to conclude even from this circumstance alone, that 

 the former should be the most perfect group of the two, and that its species 

 should consequently be endowed with more diversified instincts ; hence, al- 

 though a vegetable regimen is the great characteristic of the Pceonomince, 

 still many of the species are omnivorous, and this is to be expected, especially 

 among the Cirrhins and the true Carps ( Cyprinus prop. Cuv). The Barbels, 

 however, as well perhaps as the Breams which appear to be peculiar to Europe, 

 seem to partake more of carnivorous habits, and therefore must be held as the 

 sub-typical, while the Cirrhins are the typical*, and the Gudgeons and 

 Gonorhynchs from their possessing in the greatest perfection the single 

 instinct for a tendency to which the P<Eonomince are most remarkable, viz. 

 subsisting exclusively on a vegetable regimen, are as unquestionably the 

 aberrant forms of Pcsonominte ; on the other hand the rapacious habits of the 

 Sarcobo7'ince mark them so conspicuously as a sub-typical group, correspond- 

 ing as they do with the habit of that group in devouring other animals, 

 that it is unnecessary in this place to offer a remark in support of a 

 fact so plain. 



* The Cirrhins being the most perfect forms of a typical group, are strictly, in the language 

 of Mr. SwainsoD, pre-eminently typical. 



