210 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



stones at the bottom of the rivers and procuring his food, 

 which consists of almost anything. He is a regular fresh- 

 water pig, and lives by picking up what he can find, be it 

 animal or vegetable." 



In this country they sometimes, but very rarely, are 

 found as heavy as 15 Ibs. ; a barbel of 10 Ibs. is a rare fish. 

 On the Danube and other large rivers on the Continent 

 they reach a much greater size. 



Day (" Fishes of Great Britain," &c.) says : " It is a 

 matter of history that subsequent to a dreadful carnage 

 between the Turks and the Austrians on the banks of the 

 Danube, barbels were found of such vast size and in such 

 numbers as to become a subject of record ; while, their 

 propensity to human flesh being well known, the circum- 

 stance was attributed to the heaps of dead bodies which 

 had been thrown into the river." 



Some barbel frequent the bottom of still rivers and 

 their deeper parts ; others are found in the rapids below 

 the weirs and in swift streams. 



The barbel is a handsome fish ; of a greenish, olivaceous 

 colour, with a gold bronzy burnish ; belly white ; eyes 

 golden ; dorsal and caudal fins brownish, tinged with red ; 

 pectoral, ventral, and anal fins flesh-red ; lateral line nearly 

 straight. It spawns May and June, the spawn being 

 placed, not on aquatic plants, but on the gravel, which 

 is subsequently covered over by the parent fish with great 

 care. 



The fin-rays are: dorsal, 1213; pectoral, 18; ventral, 

 910; anal, 78; caudal, 20. 



The flesh is very unpalatable and coarse ; although 

 Dame Juliana Berners says that it is " a sweet fysshe." 

 Even old Izaak is obliged to say that " he is not accounted 

 the best fish to eat, neither for his wholesomeness nor his 

 taste ; but the male is reputed much better than the female, 

 whose spawn is very hurtful." 



Day says : " The Jews, having boiled them with vinegar 

 and oil, eat them not only at their white feasts, but when- 

 ever they can obtain them." 



Barbel at times produce sickness and diarrhoea in some 



