380 INDIAN CYPRINID.E. Sarcohorince. 



salient on the upper margin, but less prominent below ; the colours are usually 

 distributed in peculiar spots and streaks ; the scales are large. The species are 

 numerous, and of small size, but very abundantly distributed throughout the 

 ponds of Bengal, Assam, and indeed the waters of all parts of India. 



The stomach is a long, narrow, fleshy tube, terminating in a single intes- 

 tine, which in most of the species is twisted round the stomach like the thread 

 of a screw, see PI. 54. f. 12. «, oesophagus, is the vent^ The entire length 

 of the canal does not however in any case exceed thrice that of the body. The 

 air-vessel and liver are fully developed, and present slight variations of form 

 in the different species, but agree generally with the same organs in the 

 Cirrhins. From the shortness of the intestinal tube compared with that of 

 Pcsonomince, as well as on account of their bright colours, and the peculiarities 

 of the mouth, which seems to be constructed chiefly for insect food — the 

 remains of this having been found abundantly in their stomach — these fishes 

 are placed with the Sarcohorince. Their protractile jaws, often supplied with 

 cirri or muscular filaments, and their comparatively elaborate digestive organs, 

 indicate, on the other hand, a perfection of structure compared with the 

 other genera of Sarcohori7icB, that naturally raises them to the first place in 

 that sub-family, of which they consequently become the typical group. 



I.— Systomus immaculatus, J. M. 

 PI. 44. f. 5. 



Entire lengtli equal to about twice the depth, back arched equally from 

 the snout to the dorsal fin ; the upper half of the dorsal spine serrated behind ; 

 thirty-two scales along the lateral line, and ten in an oblique line from the 

 base of the ventrals to the dorsum. . Four small cirri. The fin rays are, 



D.ll : P.15: V.9: A.7: C.19. 

 Colour green above, below greenish white, fins pale, and a tinge of red on 

 the opercula. The stomach widens at the oesophageal extremity, and the 



