GEN. COBITIS. THE LOACH. 83 



ing to take it in his absence. This I saw, he adds, 

 several times. The cause of attraction was a dead 

 minnow, which they seemed to be devouring. Like 

 the Gold-fish, they are often imprisoned in a glass 

 vase, where they are easily tamed, and taught to 

 pick flies and filaments of beef from the hand. Even 

 here they are active and sportful, but never outlive 

 three years. In the county of Devon, it is not an 

 uncommon occurrence, by making small bays, and 

 by the aid of a net, to procure from a peck to a peck 

 and a half of these fish in an hour. They are consi- 

 dered very palatable, being sweet and well flavoured, 

 equalling any fresh- water fish as food, being cooked 

 whole. Isaac Walton's receipt, however, reads dif- 

 ferently. Being washed well in salt, and their heads 

 and tails cut ofl', and being gutted, they are fried, 

 with yoke of eggs, the flowers of cowslips, and of 

 primroses, and a little tansy. Thus used, he adds, 

 they make a dainty dish of meat. 



Gen. LYII. Cobitis. — This genus has the head 

 small, the body elongated, clad with small scales, 

 and bedewed with a thick mucous secretion; the 

 ventrals are placed far back, and over them there is 

 a single small dorsal. The mouth is small, without 

 teeth, but with lips capable of sucking, and fur- 

 nished with barbules. The air-bladder is enclosed 

 in a bony sheath. Three species are enumerated in 

 the Regne Animal as European; no less than 

 twenty-three are catalogued by Mr. M'Lelland, as 

 discovered in India. {Loc. cit. viii.) Two species 

 only are known as British. 



