162 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
southern and midland counties, and must be accounted rare in 
Britain. It has not been reported either from Scotland or 
Ireland, but it may well be that such a small fish, of exceed- 
ingly retired habits, has escaped observation in some parts of our 
islands, or been confused with the commoner stone loach. As in 
the case of Nemachilus barbatulus, soin that of Cobitis tenia, the 
wideness of range is one of the mysteries of Nature. It has 
been identified in Japan, though not in continental Asia, and it 
extends from the Caucasus, through Central Europe, to the 
rivers of Wiltshire. 
The body of the spined loach is elongated in the same 
proportions as that of the stone loach ; but it is not nearly so 
cylindrical, being laterally compressed so that the thickness 
from side to side is half the depth from back to belly. It has 
six barbules on the upper lip ; the eyes are small, set high in the 
head, with pale yellow irides ; and the skin of the head extends 
over them, as it does not do in the stone loach. The charac- 
teristic bifid spines under the eyes lie flat when at rest, and are 
erected in the presence of danger. They are very small, the 
hinder and longer limb of each being no longer than the 
diameter of the eye itself. The scales are very minute. The 
colouring of the body is somewhat fantastic, consisting of black 
blotches arranged more or less regularly in two lines on each 
side of the body upon an orange ground. Between these two 
lines occur irregular black flecks and dots. These markings do 
not extend over the abdomen. A peculiar black streak runs 
from the eye to the front of the upper lip. In length this fish 
never exceeds four inches, and its mode of life is similar to 
that of the stone loach, though it is said to have more of the 
burrowing habit than its congener. 
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