NEMACHILUS BARBATULUS. 251 



Its capture furnishes a favourite sport for children, who pursue it bare- 

 legged in shallow streams, and frequently spear it with a fork. 



According to Dr. Badham, Loach are not infrequently found frozen alive, 

 and then the warmth of the hand is said to be sufficient to thaw them ; but 

 he adds the effect is still more expeditiously produced by putting them into 

 the frying-pan, when care must be taken lest they fulfil the proverb by leaping 

 into the fire. 



The habit of the fish in remaining motionless and in hiding during the 

 greater part of the day is, apparently, connected with the small size of its air- 

 bladder, for although it comes to the surface with great effort in the evening 

 and in showery weather, it is unable to remain there. 



The bony capsules which contain the air-bladder are placed on each side of 

 the first and second vertebra? ; they are smooth on the inside, spherical in form, 

 connected together beneath the bodies of the vertebrae, and give attachment to 

 the pectoral fins. The air-bladder communicates by a slender canal with the 

 oesophagus. 



The fish spawns in England in March or the beginning of April, in North 

 Germany in April and May, and, according to Giinther, the spawning may be 

 prolonged in warm seasons as late as August in the Neckar. The eggs are nu- 

 merous and small ; they are deposited between stones, or in holes which the 

 fish has excavated. After deposition they are watched over by the males. 



The skull differs from that of other Cyprinoid fishes in wanting the jugal 

 arch. There is one infra-orbital bone in front of the eye. Yarrell describes 

 an interspace between the parietal bones, which in the fresh fish is occupied by 

 cartilage. There are thirty-nine thoracic vertebra, sixteen caudal vertebra?, and 

 fifteen pairs of ribs. The sac-like stomach is well defined from the intestine. 

 The right lobe of the liver is larger than the left. The kidney is large and 

 extends forward to the connexion between the parts of the air-bladder. 



The Loach is found in all fresh waters in Russia, except beyond the Cau- 

 casus, where it is replaced by an allied fish, Nemachilus brandti. It is rarely 

 found on the north frontier of Italy ; has not yet been recorded from Spain ; 

 and is absent from Denmark and Scandinavia ; though it w r as introduced into 

 Sweden by Frederick I. Otherwise it is spread over Central and Western 

 Europe, and is common in the British Islands. 



