1 82 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



frequenting places where the bottom is gravelly or 

 sandy and where the water is not very deep nor the 

 current too strong ; shoals of them may often be 

 seen on the bottom quite close to the bank, lying 

 still or moving about slowly in search of food, which 

 they find by stirring up the sand or gravel and 

 feeling with their barbels in much the same way as 

 the Barbel ; the food consists of shrimps, small 

 molluscs, insect larvae, worms, and the eggs and 

 fry of other fish. 



The breeding season commences in April or May, 

 when the Gudgeons repair to the gravelly shallows 

 for the purpose of spawning. At this time the 

 males are ornamented with little tubercles on the 

 head ; the females deposit their eggs on the stones 

 in small lumps, and one may take four weeks or 

 more before all are shed ; as all the fish are not ripe 

 at the same time, the spawning may last far into the 

 summer. 



The fry hatch out in about a month, so that they 

 may often be found at the same time as the breeding- 

 fish. 



Rusconi's account of the spawning of the Gudgeon 

 in Lombardy has been thus translated by Smitt : 

 " During my stay at Desio, on a most lovely day 

 in July, I was walking early in the morning along 

 the shore of the little lake of Villa Traversi. 

 Suddenly a noise reached my ear. I thought at 

 first that some one was beating the water with 

 sticks or with the flat of an oar. On glancing along 

 the shore I soon detected the spot from which the 

 sound proceeded, as well as the cause of the dis- 

 turbance ; it was caused by spawning fishes. Eager 

 to obtain a closer view of this sight, I stealthily 



