Gohio. INDIAN CYPRINID^, 349 



the Catla is one of the commonest fish in Bengal, Buchanan remarks that it is 

 unknown in most parts of Behar. If a little attention were directed to the 

 extirpation of Alligators, and other destructive animals in our tanks, there 

 is no limit to the extent to which this, and similar useful species might be 

 propagated. 



IV.—Gen. GOBIO. 



The Gudgeons, according toCuvier, have both the dorsal and anal short, and 

 are without spinous rays in any of the fins, or cirri to the mouth. As, however, 

 we have some Indian species with two cirri, it is necessary to omit the 

 consideration of those appendages in the characters of the genus, otherwise 

 well marked by the lower jaw being shorter than the upper, without hav- 

 ing the mouth directed downwards, as in the Gonorhynchs. The vent is 

 placed close in front of the anal fin, and not between the ventrals, as in 

 the Gonorhynchs ; and in many of the species the liver is either altogether 

 wanting, or dispersed in numerous small glands throughout the folds of the 

 intestines. I have already remarked that cirri are very uncertain characters 

 in this family, and that even among the Cirrhins themselves, a genus cha- 

 racterised by these appendages, it is often difficult to say whether they are 

 present or not ; and in the closely allied group Laheo, cirri are altogether 

 wanting, though, if we may judge from what appear to be Indian species of 

 Laheo, their habits and structure in other respects hardly differ from the 

 Cirrhins. The Gudgeons as I have limited the group, are strictly herbivorous, 

 and surpass all other fishes of the family in the length of the alimentary canal, 

 which is from eight to eleven lengths of the body, inclusive of the head and 

 caudal fin, and is always filled with a soft green pulpy aliment. The stomach 

 is a long tapering tube, and differs only from the rest of the canal in the 

 longitudinal direction of its muscular fibres ; the lower jaw is composed of 

 two bones soldered together at tlie symphysis ; the lips are hard, with a 



slight ridge on the upper surface of the lower one in many of the species, a 



M m 



