AND OF STILL WATERS. 97 



" for excellency of meat, compared to any fish 

 of greatest value and largest size." Mr. Yarrell 

 says, " they make an excellent fry when a 

 sufficient quantity can be obtained," which is a 

 wise proviso as regards so diminutive a little 

 person as Leuciscus phoxinus. By this name he 

 is spoken of by Cuvier, Fleming, and Yarrell ; 

 Linnaeus and Jenyns call him Cyprinus 

 phoxinus ; and Johnston varies the cognomen 

 still further in Phoxinus Icevis, the latter word 

 being derived from the Greek <f>o6<;, a term 

 which the minnow shares with Thersites, who 

 in the " Iliad " has his head alluded to thereby. 

 Rondeletius spoke of the minnow as Varius ; 

 and Aristotle, who made many observations on 

 minnows and their habits, always alludes to this 

 little fish as Phoxinus, owing to its shape, which 

 he considered was " formed like a top," though 

 why a minnow should be thought more like a 

 top in shape than other fishes the salmon, for 

 instance, whose shape he reproduces in minia- 

 ture it would be hard to say. 



Top-shaped or not, the minnow is one of 

 the greatest dandies the British rivers possess, 



H 



