256 



INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



be some unexpected forms unknown to us, the discovery of which would 

 necessarily derange any attempt we could now make to trace in farther 

 detail the parallel relations of the minor groups among themselves. Six 

 species collected in the mountain streams at Simla by Dr. MacLeod, 

 and obligingly submitted to me, have proved to be all undescribed, and 

 one of them affords the type of a new genus Oreinus, or mountain Barbels, 

 of which I had before received from Mr. Griffith a species from Boutan 

 ( O. guttatus ) ; but as there was but one specimen in Mr. Griffith's collec- 

 tions, and that considerably injured, I hesitated to form from it alone the 

 characters of a new group.* This genus has the form of Gonorhynchus ; the 

 mouth is situated in like manner under the head, but the alimentary canal 

 is considerably shorter, and the dorsal is preceded by a spine as in the Barbels. 



51. I am uncertain as to the habits of the European Breams, not having 

 examined them myself; but from all that I can glean on the subject, they 

 appear to be insectivorous, and in the best figures I can find of them the 

 mouth appears to be directed upward, and the anal fin to be long ; these 

 characters may prove to be analogies rather than affinities to the Perilamps, 

 and until the point be decided, the parallel relations of the two groups cannot 

 be made out ; the only Indian Bream I am acquainted with ( Cyp. cotis, 

 Buch.) has the character of the Perilamps both in the form of its mouth 

 and length of its alimentary canal, while on the other hand, the old genus 

 JLeuciscus is not a natural group, some of the European species, as Cyprinus 

 CuUrattis being doubtless an Opsarius,j while others are certainly her- 



* Cyprinus Richardsonii figured in Hardwicke's Illust. t. 94. f. 2. is an Orehms, and may be 

 appropriately named 0. putictafus. 



t Leuciscus Coeruleus, Yarrel and L. erythropthalmus, Cuv. appear to be Perilamps, L. doubla, 

 L. Icancastriensis, Yarr. and L. alburnus are also insectivorous. I have mentioned this in a letter 

 to Mr. Swainson in October last, and I have no doubt the hint will be suflScient to direct the 

 attention of this philosophical naturalist to an examination of the whole of the English species. 



