Labeo. INDIAN CYPRINID^. 331 



The colours are bluish or brownish black above and on the extremities of 

 the fins, but bluish white along the belly ; the sides are also bluish-white with 

 various stains of red and yellow on the shoulders. 



On a closer examination of its structure, the limbs of the lower jaw are 

 found to have a stronger ligamentous attachment in front than was observed 

 in the true Cirrhins, while the articulation behind to the pteropalatine bones 

 is considerably weaker, and the maxillary apparatus forming the front of the 

 upper jaw is remarkably strong, the intermaxillary having firm articulations > 

 laterally with the outer sides of the apophyses of the limbs of the lower jaw, 

 proving clearly that whatever power such a structure is intended to exercise, 

 must be rather adapted to the crushing of detached objects, than the separa- 

 tion of such as are fixed or rooted to the ground, which would require a 

 strong abutment of the jaw behind, as in the Gonorhynchs. Hence we may 

 infer, that the bruising of shells and seeds is the peculiar object of its 

 existence. In its search for such food, it would naturally be led to shallow 

 waters on banks of sand and boulders where shell fish and drifted fragments 

 of plants are most common, and the dangers to which it is exposed in such 

 situations from birds and other animals, as well as of being left above the 

 retiring currents, would be more to be guarded against than in species inhabit- 

 ing deeper waters ; hence those fins on which the velocity of its movements 

 depend are large ; and like all those species that inhabit rapid currents, its 

 snout is perforated by numerous pores, from which an abundant slimy se- 

 cretion is carried backward over the body by means of its motion through the 

 water, the friction or resistance of which is thus diminished; this use of the 

 mucous from the nasal pores of fishes I derive from JNIr. Yarrell. The 

 still more copious mucous secretion enveloping the bodies of Loaches and 

 other Ajxdopter'mce we may presume is given them as a means of escape from 

 enemies, rather than to facilitate their movements in the water, as they are not 

 expert swimmers. Nothing can better illustrate this, than that in Gudgeons des- 

 tined chiefly to inhabit stagnant waters, and not formed for very rapid swim- 



