INDIAN CYPRINID.E. 



251 



Loaches the caudal is barred and otherwise ornamented, while that of every 

 other species in the same family is perfectly plain.* 



Next as to soft appendages to the head, the Loaches surpass every other 

 group in the same family in the number and uniformity of these appendages ; 

 and lastly, the Loaches and Schisturce present the very extraordinary rela- 

 tion to the tribe of ruminants, and especially to the Cermd(E, or stags, in 

 having articulated to the orbitar process of the frontal bone on either side, 

 a formidable horn which can be raised at pleasure from a suborbitar sinus 

 analogous to the suborbitar sinus in Antelopes, the use of which in them 

 is conjectural. The horn which is concealed in this sinus in the Loaches, 

 appears to be equivalent to the suborbitar chain in the Perch, and to the 

 corresponding plates in the ordinary CyprinidcB ; it is somewhat flattened 

 or palmated, as in many of the Deer tribe, ending in a sharp point which is 

 directed forward ; on the anterior margin and near the base of the horn 

 a strong antler is given off, this is also very sharp, and turned forward like the 

 point of the horn itself. 



49. I have shown that Cyprinid(S is a natural group, that it is circularf 

 in its affinities, that for instance in setting out from the Gonorhynchs we 



* This as well as all similar analogies aflForded by the structure of Ci/prinidce were developed 

 in the course of my examination of species before I had ventured to form any general views 

 on the subject, and even before I had studied those of Mr. Macleay, or perused the works of 

 Mr. Swainson, which have taught me the importance of characters which although noted, I felt 

 totally at a loss how to use. 



t " They might as well be called oval or square." " Why not linear?" The researches of zoolo- 

 gists during the last twenty years have fortunately left me nothing original to say in reply to this 

 criticism, which perhaps deserves notice as coming from a member of the Committee of 

 Papers, Mr. C — . Speaking of d(>scril)ing naturul objects in ordor in wliicli they succeed each 



