ABDOMINAL MALACOPTERYGIANS. 175 



COBITIS*, Lin. 



The Loaches have the head small ; body elongated, invested with small 

 scales and covered with mucus; ventrals very far back, and above them a 

 single small dorsal; the mouth at the extremity of the snout, but slightly 

 cleft, without teeth, but encircled with lips fitted for sucking, and with 

 cirri ; but three rays in the branchiae, the apertures of which are small ; 

 the inferior pharyngeal bones strongly dentated, there is no caecum in their 

 intestine; and their very small natatory bladder is enclosed in a bony 

 bilobate case, which adheres to the third and fourth vertebrae -f-. Three spe- 

 cies inhabit the rivers of France. 



C. harhatida, L,, Bl. 31, 3. (The Common or Bearded Loach). 

 A small fish four or five inches in length, clouded and dotted with 

 brown on a yellowish ground, with six cirri ; common in brooks, and 

 a capital fish for the table. 



C.fossilis, L.; Misgurn, Lac. + ; Bl. 31, 1. (The Great Loach). 

 Sometimes a foot long, with longitudinal brown and yellow rays, and 

 ten cirri. It lives in the mud of marshes, even long after they have 

 been dried up or covered with ice. In stormy weather it rises to the 

 surface of the water, which its restlessness keeps constantly agitated; 

 when it is cold it descends more deeply into the mud. It is con- 

 stantly inhaling atmospheric air, which, according to the interesting 

 observation of M. Ehrman, after having been converted into carbonic 

 acid, is discharged per anum. The flesh is soft and smells of mud§. 

 C. tcenia, L. xii; Bl. 31, 2. (The Spiny Loach). Six cirri; the 

 body compressed, orange-coloured, and marked with a series of black 

 spots; distinguished from the two others by a forked and moveable 

 spine, formed before the eye by the suborbital. It is the smallest of 

 the three, and is found in rivers, among stones, &c. ; it is not much 

 esteemed 1 1. 



AnablepsTI, Bl. 



The Anableps, for a long time and improperly combined with the 

 Loaches, have very peculiar characters : in the first place, their eyes, which 

 are exceedingly prominent beneath an arch formed on each side by the 

 frontal bone, have the cornea and iris divided into two parts by transverse 

 bands, so that these fishes have two pupils, and each appears to be double, 

 altliough they have but one crystalline lens, one vitreous humour, and one 

 retina** — an arrangement of which no other example is to be found in the 



• Kobilis, the Greek name of some small undetermined fish. 



I See Sclineider, Syn. Pise. Arted. 5 and 337. 



X I do not separate the Misgunis from the Cobites; there is no difference wliat- 

 ever in their ore;anization, and the number of jaw teeth is not greater in the former 

 than in the latter; 1 have vainly sought for those described by Bloch. 



§ Add, the three species of Cobitis with unarmed cheeks described by Buchanan, 

 Pise. Gang. ]). 357 — 350. 



II Add, Cob. gfla, Buch. XF, 96, and the other seven species witii armed cheeks de- 

 sciibcd by that Icfhyologist, o)). cit. p. 3.'>0 — 3.)G. 



^ From the Greek anab/cpo, to raise tl-.e eyes, a name given by Artcdi. 

 ♦* See Lacep. Mem. de I'lnstitut, torn. 11, p. 372. 



