344 LAKES AND STREAMS 



like gold, inhabits eastern Europe ; the range of the ordinary species including 

 central Europe and Siberia. Yet another species, A. schmetser, which has a long 

 body and snout, is lemon-yellow in colour, with three to seven blackish lines 

 along the sides, and rows of dark spots on the spiny part of the dorsal fin. 

 This fish lives exclusively in the rivers discharging into the Black Sea. The only 

 European species of the allied genus Liicioperca is the pike-perch (L. sanclra), 

 which forms a common food-fish on the Continent. It is greenish grey on the 

 the back and sides, and whitish below, with brown indistinct spots running from 

 the back down the sides and sometimes blending into cross-bands. Of the two 

 dorsal fins, the front has from twelve to fourteen spines, while the anal fin has 

 two spines. This fish is indigenous to eastern Europe, and appears to have spread 

 westwards in comparatively recent times, as it was formerly unknown in the Rhine 

 and the Weser. Although it breeds well in lakes, and cannot therefore be called 

 exclusively a river-fish, it only occurs in such lakes as are near large rivers. 



Another genus of the perch-family (Asprd) contains two species with long 

 cylindrical bodies, mainly confined to the area of the Black Sea, although one, A. 

 zingel, also occurs in the tributaries of the upper Danube. This fish is distinguished 



THE ZINGEL, 



by an almost triangular head, a short stout tail, and brownish yellow colouring, 



broken by more or less indistinct blackish cross-bands. The second species, 



.1. vulgaris, which is only ahout half the length of the first, being some 6 inches 



long, has a rounded head, a long thin tail, and is brownish yellow with four or five 



blackish crooked bands. 



The small bullhead (Cottus aobio), which belongs to another 

 Bullhead. . . . 



family (Cottidce), may be recognised by its wide flat head, rounded in 



front, the almost cylindrical, scaleless body, and the large and rounded pectoral fins. 



Inhabiting many of the smaller streams of the area under considei-ation, this fish is 



remarkable for the circumstance that the female deposits her eggs in a hole in the 



