Systomus. INDIAN CYPRINIDiE. 379 



This sub-family includes the several divisions into which Indian species 

 have been separated by Buchanan, under the terms Chela, Barilius, Puntius 

 Danio, Marulius, and Cabdio, which were merely characterised by that author 

 as having no resemblance to other genera. Indeed it would have been im- 

 possible in Buchanan's time to have assigned positive characters by which the 

 SarcohorincB, or their subordinate groups, could be distinguished, without a 

 knowledge of the di^overies that have been made by Mr. Macleay. In the 

 introduction to the Gangetic Fishes, we are told that to have adopted the im- 

 provements introduced by Cuvier, whose system appeared after the M.S. had 

 been prepared for the press, would have occasioned a trouble for which there 

 would not have been a sufficient counterbalance ; and indeed that system alone, 

 without the aid of Mr. Macleay's views, which appeared about the same time, 

 would have afforded very little assistance in this family. It is impossi- 

 ble, however, not to admire the excellent notions of natural affinities which 

 are apparent in every part of Buchanan's work, but particularly in the genus 

 Cyprinus, where he was induced to cast aside all respect for systematic writers, 

 and to act independently of their authority. All that can be regretted is, that 

 more care had not been bestowed by him in characterising the new groups which 

 he proposed, of which Chela alone appears to be the only one that has been 

 adopted, and that merely from a supposed affinity which it presents to Clupece 

 or Herrings. The Chelce, however, strictly speaking, consist only of three or 

 four aberrant forms, whose affinities lie between the Perilamps and Opsarions. 



I.— Gen. SYSTOMUS, J. M. 



The head is small, oval, and smooth ; the mouth is small, and when opened 

 the intermaxilliaries are drawn forward so as to form a somewhat cylindrical 

 tube ; the tongue is thick and fleshy ; the dorsal, placed in the middle of the 

 back, is composed of rather long, but not numerous rays preceded by a spine, 

 and placed opposite to the ventrals ; the body is deep, short, compressed, and 



