LEUOISCUS CEPHALU8. 



157 



and sometimes margined with blue. The anal and ventral fins are deep red, 

 but the rays are more intense in colour than the interspaces. The spine-like 

 scale over the base of the ventral has a similar red colour. All the other 



scales have a black pigment spot to- 

 wards the middle of their free margins. 

 The colours of the young fish, especially 

 those of the lower fins, are pale, or yel- 

 lowish, and sometimes spotted with 

 black, while the caudal fin is quite 

 black. 



In England the Chub attains a 

 length of upwards of twenty inches, 

 and may weigh between five and six pounds. In the Danube and Neckar its 

 weight is commonly four to five pounds ; but it reaches a weight of eight or 



Fig. 81. 1>HAK\NGEAL TEETH OF LEUCISCUS 

 CEPHALUS. 



Fig. 82. LEUCISCUS CEPHALUS (LIN.). 



nine pounds, in the Austrian lakes. In France and Germany the size is much 

 the same as in England. In the colder and higher Swiss lakes the fishes are 

 smaller. 



The Chub is found indifferently in the lakes of mountainous and low- 

 lying country, and in brooks and rivers. It rather prefers a gravelly or sandy 

 bottom. Hundreds of young fish may often be seen swimming together, till a 

 shadow of a cloud or some noise disturbs them, when they dart away like 

 arrows. This species is more voracious than any other Cyprinoid. It lives on 

 worms, flies, and other insects when young, but as it grows older frequents 

 deeper water and larger streams, when it becomes predatory, and lives on small 

 fishes captures the fresh-water crayfish (Astacus fluviatilis) when casting its 

 shell, and if frogs are abundant feeds on them, while, exceptionally, it eats mice. 

 At Strassburg the Chub is known as the Mouse-eater, and is reputed to eat 

 water rats, which is not improbable, since one individual at least has been found 



