GROUNDLING. 215 



monly known by the name of red-eye, is peculiarly 

 abundant in Reche Lode, a navigable cut from the 

 Cam, near here. Females brought from that loca- 

 lity to-day were found, when opened, to be full of 

 roe, though far from ripe : the exact spawning time 

 of this species I have not been able to ascertain ; I 

 believe it, however, to occur about the third or fourth 

 week in April. 



This fish is remarkably distinguished from its con- 

 geners by the bright vermilion colour of the ventral, 

 anal, and caudal fins ; and by a peculiar faint golden 

 or brassy lustre, somewhat resembling the tint of a 

 bad shilling, pervading the whole body. 



GROUNDLING.* 



THE groundling is a small fish, apparently very 

 little known in other parts of England,f but far 

 from uncommon in our river, and in ponds and 

 ditches supplied from it. I have frequently taken 

 it in the Cam and Reche Lode, as well as in the 

 Ouse below Ely, and in fish-ponds adjacent to the 

 river at this last place. From its keeping, however, 

 very much in the mud, it is not easily obtained, 

 except by a net that scrapes close to the bottom. 

 Its partiality, indeed, for mud, and habit of residing 

 occasionally even in the thick sediment of stagnant 

 waters, would seem to distinguish it from its more 



* Cobitis tania, Linn. 



t Mr. Yarrell, in his British Fishes, mentions no other localities 

 for this species except those recorded by Berkenhout and Turton, 

 and the* one I furnished him with. 



