Handbook of the Freshwater Fishes of India (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ON DISTRIBUTION. As regards the Geographical Distribution of Genera, we find, among fresh-water fishes, that the Genera are confined within much narrower limits than are the Families. To take a few instances. Genus Barbus. Temperate and tropical parts of the Old World?Europe, Asia, Africa, East Indian Archipelago. Genus Labeo. Tropical regions?Africa, and the East Indies, Java, Syria. Genus Discognathus. Mountain streams, Syria, Persia, India, Ceylon. Genus Crossochilus. East Indies, Java and Sumatra. Genus Sclerognathus. North America and North China. Genus Cyprinus. Temperate parts of Europe and Asia. Genus Schizothorax. Mountain streams, Cashmere, and Afghanistan. Genus Leuciscus. Temperate and Arctic Eegions, Europe, N. America, Persia, Anatolia. Genus Barilius. India, East Africa, Eiver Nile. The Cyprinidse, heing exclusively fresh-water fishes, and also being very numerous, and containing several large genera, are well adapted to elucidate this subject. We find some genera that are frequenters of temperate and cold climates, and others that can only exist in tropical climates. The genus Leuciscus, for instance, is spread over the North of Europe and North America, not extending into Indian waters. The genus Labeo, on the other hand, is found in tropical Africa and the East Indies only. Some genera are confined to North America, occasionally spreading, as in genus Sclerognathus, into China via N.E. Asia. The large genus Barbus is found all over Europe, Asia, and Africa, but does not occur in America. Most of the genera that inhabit the continent of India, extend also to the East Indian Archipelago, Java, and Sumatra. Those Indian genera that inhabit mountain streams, such as Discognathus and Schizothorax, are ...