CobitincB. 



INDIAN CYPRINID^. 



445 



A comparison of the SchisturtB as they appear plate 53, with the 

 Loaches which immediately precede them, plate 52, will show that the 

 latter present little resemblance to the typical forms of the great family to 

 which they belong ; indeed fig. 7, t, 52. is perhaps the only one on the 

 plate that seems to indicate any resemblance whatever to the ordinary forms 

 of Cyprins. 



In the succeeding plate 53, we do see a somewhat nearer approach to the 

 general forms of Cyprinidce ; figs. 8 and 9, plate 61, which in their direct 

 affinities follow those species, represented plate 53, present a still closer re- 

 lation to the Cirrhins, nor is this a mere resemblance of outer form, for in 

 Cohitis and Schistura the natatory vessel is absent, or enclosed in a bony case 

 which is situated over the throat. But that vessel is again restored to the 

 genus in the two species represented plate 61, thus perfectly obliterating the 

 interval by which the Schisturce at one extremity of the family are removed 

 from the Cirrhins at the other, and causing the two ends to meet, according 

 to the law of natural affinities pointed out by Mr. W. S. Macleay. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATES LIX, LX, LXI. 



The important use that has been made of the structure of scales of 

 fishes by M. Agassiz, not only in the classification of fishes, but for objects 

 of equal interest in another branch of science, must in future render any 

 descriptions of fishes in which figures of the scales are omitted very in- 

 complete. M. Agassiz in the prospectus of his forthcoming work on the 

 natural history of the fresh water fishes of Europe observes, " Comme j' at- 

 tache la plus grande importance aux caracteres tires de la forme des dcailles, je 

 n'ai point neglige d'en figurer trois pour chaque esp^ce, savoir, une de la ligne 



lat^rale, une de la region dorsale et une troisi^me de la region abdominale." 



3 N 



