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, so in that of Cobitis tcenia, 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. 



