376 INDIAN CYPRINID^. Sarcohorinee. 



I^ond. 1838, has reached me, and affords many observations in corroboration 

 of the results to which I have been led in the analysis of Indian Cyprinidce, 

 particularly in the formation of the aberrant groups of the family. Speaking 

 of the apodal order, to which the Gonorhynchs present many relations, as well 

 in their lengthened cylindric forms, thick integuments, and submaxillary 

 sucker with which they are furnished, Mr. Swainson says, "it would seem, 

 indeed, that nature upon leaving the annulose circle, and entering that of the 

 fish, intended to show us all the forms of variation in the first group, which 

 she afterwards employs to characterise higher divisions : this she has done 

 in the class Acrita, as Mr. Macleay has so beautifully illustrated in the " Horee 

 Entomologicae ;" and in confirmation of this, we now find the apodal forms 

 reappear, not alone among the PcEonomincB as in the Gonorhynchs, but also 

 in the Platycara and Cohitince, thus marking the most distant groups with 

 certain types, through which the character of annulose animals, or worms, 

 may be traced. Unacquainted before with this analogy, yet in the formation 

 of aberrant groups I have been led to the development of its truth by another 

 path, than the one which led to its detection by Mr. Swainson. 



II._SuB-FAM.— SARCOBORIN^, J. M. 



Characters. — A blunt knoh on the apex of the lower jaw, more or less distinct ; 

 intestinal canal short ; colours bright. Like the Paeonominas, they are confin- 

 ed to fresh water, but their habits are carnivorous ; si%e small. Three rays 

 in the branchial membrane. 



The first object is to show that the relations of this sub-family to the 

 Pceonomince are parallel, and therefore that the two groups are distinct. The 

 number of types representing genera in each sub-family are apparently five, 

 some of them are very well made out ; as for instance, Cirrhinus, Barbus, 

 Gobio, and Gonorhynchus among the Pceonomincn ; and Systomus, Perilampus, 



