384 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



Hope, Cyprinus gonorhyncus, Gra. Gron. Zooph. pi. x. 

 f. 24 \ 



Cobitis % L. 



Have the head small, the body elongated, clothed 

 with small scales, and invested with a mucous sub- 

 stance; the ventrals are very much behind, and above 

 them is a small single dorsal ; the mouth is at the end 

 of the muzzle, not much cleft, without teeth, but sur- 

 rounded by lips adapted for sucking, and by barbels ; 

 the gills are not much open, and have only three 

 rays ; their inferior pharyngeal bones are pretty 

 strongly dentated ; there are no cceca to their in- 

 testine, and their small natatory bladder is enclosed 

 in an osseous, bilobate case, adhering to the third and 

 fourth vertebrae 3 . 



We have three species in our fresh waters, 

 Cobitis barbatula, L. Bl. 31. 3. A small fish, four 

 or five inches long, shaded and punctated with brown 

 on a yellowish ground, with six barbies : common in 

 our streams, and its flavour is excellent. 



Cobitis f oss? lis, L. Bl. 31. 1. (Locke cVetang: Pond 

 loache ox Sucker) Misgurn*, Lacep. Sometimes a foot in 



1 Badly copied, Schn. 78. 



2 Kw/37ri, the Greek name of a small, badly ascertained fish. 



3 See Schneider Syn. Pise, Arted. p. 5. and 337- 



4 N.B. I do not separate the misgurns from cobitis or the loaches, 

 because their organization differs in nothing, and the first have no 

 teeth in their jaws any more than the others. I have sought to no 

 purpose for those here described by Bloch. 



