THE GUDGEON 125 
length. Mr. Keene says that he has never caught one above 
ten inches in length ; * probably not, and most Thames anglers 
would read “six” for “ten.” The English name, in which 
the d is intrusive and redundant, was formerly written ““soione” 
and “ gojone,” Dame Berners spells it “‘ gogen,” an adaptation 
of the French goujon, which came from the Latin godionem, 
accusative of gobio, an alternative form of godius. Further 
back it cannot be traced, nor is the meaning known. The 
Greek form was kwBids. We have retained the word “ goby,” 
but have assigned it to denote a totally different kind of fish 
of the Coftide, or Gurnard Family. 
In build and general proportions the gudgeon is very 
similar to his larger relative, the barbel; but he has only 
two wattles, instead of four, which hang from the upper lip 
at the corners of the mouth. The chief difference between 
the two fish, constituting their generic distinction, is the 
absence from the gudgeon’s dorsal fin of the bony spine 
in that of the barbel. The body of the gudgeon is much 
elongated, and nearly cylindrical, being in length about four 
times and a half its depth. The mouth is horizontal, but 
inferior, covered with fleshy lips. The dorsal fin stands boldly 
erect halfway down the body; the tail fin is symmetrically 
lobed ; the pectoral fin reaches as far back as in a line with the 
beginning of the dorsal; and the ventral fins are nearly as long 
as the space between their base and the beginning of the anal 
fin. Altogether the gudgeon displays a very large fin surface 
in proportion to its bulk. The fins vary from a reddish to a 
yellowish hue, spotted with dark brown; the back and sides, 
covered with rather large scales, vary from dark grey to brown 
or fawn, mottled with dark green; the spots in some specimens 
tending to form a band along the lateral line. The under-parts 
are pearly-white. 
The gudgeon loves clear running water, but it also inhabits 
lakes on the Continent. It is widely distributed through the 
* The Practical Fisherman, p. 90. 
