74 LOACHES. 



with spawn ; some lamperns ; some bull-heads ; but I could 

 procure no minnows. This basket will be in Fleet-street by 

 eight this evening ; so I hope Mazel* will have them fresh 

 and fair to-morrow morning. I gave some directions in 

 a letter, to what particulars the engraver should be atten- 



tive.f 



Finding, while I was on a visit, that I was within a rea- 

 sonable distance of Ambresbury, I sent a servant over to 

 that town, and procured several living specimens of loaches, 

 which he brought safe and brisk, in a glass decanter. They 

 were taken in the gulleys that were cut for watering the 

 meadows. From these fishes (which measured from two to 

 four inches in length) I took the following description : 

 " The loach, in its general aspect, has a pellucid appearance ; 

 its back is mottled with irregular collections of small black 

 dots, not reaching much below the tinea literalis, as are the 

 back and tail fins ; a black line runs from each eye down to 

 the nose ; its belly is of a silvery white ; the upper jaw 

 projects beyond the lower, and is surrounded with six 

 feelers, three on each side ; its pectoral fins are large, its 

 ventral much smaller ; the fin behind its anus small ; its 

 dorsal fin large, containing eight spines ; its tail, where it 

 joins to the tail fin, remarkably broad, without any taperness, 

 so as to be characteristic of this genus ; the tail fin is broad, 

 and square at the end. From the breadth and muscular 

 strength of the tail, it appears to be an active nimble fish." 



In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford, and did 

 not forget to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful 



* Mr. Peter Mazel was the engraver of the plates of the British Zoology. 

 He also engraved some of the plates for the original edition of this work. ED. 



{ The manner in which the common lamprey, petromyzon marinus, and 

 the lesser species, commonly known as lamperns, form their spawning-beds, 

 is curious. They ascend our rivers to breed, about the end of June, and 

 remain until the beginning of August. They are not furnished with any 

 elongation of jaw, afforded to most of our fresh- water fish, to form the receiving 

 furrows in this important season ; but the want is supplied by their sucker- 

 like mouth, by which they individually remove each stone. Their power is 

 immense. Stones of a very large size are transported, and a large furrow is 

 soon formed. The p. marinus remain in pairs, two on each spawning-place, 

 and while there employed, retain themselves affixed by the mouths to a large 

 stone. The p.fluviatilis, and another small species which I have not deter- 

 mined, are gregarious, acting in concert, and forming, in the same manner, a 

 general spawning-bed. W. J. 



