56 



WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



ACANTHOPTERYGIL 



WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



THE RIVER BULLHEAD, MILLER'S THUMB, 



TOMMY LOG6E. 



Coitus gobio, LINN^US. BLOCII, pt. ii. pi. 39. 



M ,, Cuv. et VALENC. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. iv. p. 145. 



,, River Bullhead, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 291, pi. 43. 



,, ' ,, DON. Brit. Fish. pi. 80. 



,, ,, ,, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 216, sp. 157. 



Generic Characters. Head large, depressed ; teeth in both jaws and in front 

 of the vomer, small, sharp, none on the palatine bones ; preoperculum or oper- 

 culum armed with spines, sometimes both ; branchiostegous rays 6 ; gill-open- 

 ings large ; body attenuated, naked, without scales ; two dorsal fins, distinct or 

 very slightly connected ; ventral fins small. 



THE RIVER BULLHEAD is an inhabitant of almost all 

 the fresh-water streams of the whole of Europe, from Italy to 

 Sweden ; and most of the streams in this country that in 

 their course run over sand or gravel produce this fish. It 

 occurs also in the north of Ireland, in Belfast and London- 

 derry. Its length seldom exceeds four or five inches, and it 

 is generally found among loose stones, under which, from the 

 peculiarly flattened form of its head, it is enabled to thrust 

 itself, and thus to find a hiding-place. When disturbed, it 

 swims rapidly. The term Bullhead has been attached to all the 



