Barhus. 



INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



335 



III. — B. MACROCEPHALUS, J. M. 

 t. 55, f. 2. 



Biirapetea of the Assamese. 



Length of the head compared to that of the body as two to five, twenty- 

 seven scales along the lateral line, and six in an oblique row from the base 

 of the ventrals to the back ; fins short, and formed of strong rays as follows, 



D.ll: P.16: V.IO: A.7: C.19. 



The postorbitar plates are broadly expanded ; the eyes are placed in the 

 anterior third of the head, equidistant between the preoperculum and the 

 intermaxillary bones. The mouth is large and protractile, the lips smooth 

 and round, the jaws and intermaxillaries strong and covered, as well as the 

 interior of the mouth, with an uninterrupted extension of the outer skin. 



The stomach and intestine are a simple continuation of a single canal 

 consisting only of two convolutions ; the liver is large, and envelopes the 

 stomach and intestines with its broad and elongated lobes. 



Mr. Griffith caught many with live bait, some as weighty as 20 and even 

 30 pounds : smaller individuals are however taken with flies, and he remarked 

 of this and another fish very nearly allied to it, called by the natives 

 Mahaseer, that they are so extremely voracious and carnivorous in their 

 habits as to swallow any of the smaller fishes that approach them. This is 

 exactly what might be expected in one of the most typical species of a sub- 

 typical group, for although the Barbels belong to the Pceonomince, or 

 herbivorous sub-family, yet as a natural group, it should according to the law 

 of symbolical representation have its carnivorous forms, and from the preva- 

 lence of these among the Barbels I have made this genus the sub-typical, or 

 destructive group of the Pceonomi7ice. 



The only individual I have had an opportunity of examining was caught 

 in deep clear water at the commencement of the rapids, and was three and a 



