THE GUDGEON. 71 



From being full of bones, and from its meagreness, the 

 C. cultratus is not in request for the table. 



It is said to spawn in May and June, and to deposit its roe 

 amongst aquatic plants near to the shore. It is prolific. 

 Bloch has counted in a fish of a pound and a quarter, the 

 ovaries of which weighed two ounces and a half, one hundred 

 and five thousand seven hundred and forty eggs. 



Northern naturalists do not inform us of the size to which 

 it attains. Bloch merely states that the one from which 

 his drawing* was taken measured one foot and a half in 

 length, and weighed one pound and a half. 



The Gudgeon (Slatting ; Sandkrypare, fyc., Sw. ; C. 

 Gobio, Linn.). This well-known fish is pretty nearly con- 

 fined, I believe, to the province of Scania, where it is said 

 to spawn in May and June. 



The Spined Loche, or Groundling (Gadd-Syl, Pigg-Syl, 

 Sw. ; literally goad , or spined awl ; Cobitis T&nia, Linn.), 

 was found, though sparingly, in my vicinity ; but in parts 

 of the Wenern it is, I am told, very plentiful. According 

 to Swedish naturalists, it inhabits the southern and more 

 midland provinces of Scandinavia, but of its limits to the 

 northward little seems to be known. 



This fish, as the name would denote, is armed with a 

 forked and movable spine, situated behind the nostrils, 

 and below each eye, which at the approach of danger it 

 directs horizontally. Hence, it is somewhat of an annoyance 

 to the fisherman, whose feet, when pursuing his avocation 

 barefooted in the summer, it not unfrequently wounds. 



The spined loche prefers running water, where the bottom 

 consists of sand or stones, beneath which last it delights 

 * Page 204, Plate 371. 



