378 CYPRINID.E. 



Gold Carp, find that thunder does them harm, and even 

 sometimes kills them. Pennant says, Lobsters fear thunder, 

 and are apt to cast their claws on a loud clap. These 

 effects may be referred to spasmodic action of the muscles 

 induced by electrical influence. If fishes of opposite habits, 

 such as surface-swimmers and ground-fish, are put together 

 into the same vessel of water, and a slight galvanic discharge 

 passed through the fluid, the ground-fish with the lowest 

 degree of respiration will be the most agitated. 



Worms and aquatic insects are the food of the Loach. 

 It spawns in March or early in April, and is very prolific, 

 but seldom exceeds four inches in length. The flesh is 

 accounted excellent ; and in some parts of Europe these 

 little fishes are in such high estimation for their exquisite 

 delicacy and flavour, that they are often transported with 

 considerable trouble from the rivers they naturally inhabit 

 to waters contiguous to the estates of the wealthy. Lin- 

 nseus, in his Fauna Suecica, says that Frederick the First, 

 King of Sweden, had them brought from Germany, and 

 naturalized in his own country. 



Some peculiarities in the skeleton of the Loach will be 

 pointed out after the description of its external appearance. 



The length of the head compared with the length of the 

 body alone is as one to four ; the depth of the body is 

 to the length of the head and body, without the caudal 

 rays, as two to eleven ; the nose is rounded, pointing down- 

 wards ; the top of the head flat ; the nostrils double, the 

 most anterior tubular, the second pierced in a depression 

 just before the eye ; the lips large : the mouth small, 

 placed underneath, the lower jaw the shortest ; the form 

 and situation of the mouth very similar to that of the Barbel, 

 with four barbules or cirri over it on the upper lip in the 

 front, and one at each lateral angle : the eye small ; the 



