34 The Bullhead. 



XII. 



THE BULLHEAD OR MILLER S THUMB. 

 Caput Taurinum. 



PLATE xn. 4. 



jjHIS fish, on account of its ugliness, is called 

 the Fresh-water Devil. He is a greedy feeder, 

 and is easily taken with a piece of worm, &c. 

 They spawn in April, and are so well known - 

 that description is needless. The taste of this fish is very 

 good. He is much used as a bait especially in the Weald 

 in high Tees, where it is asserted that the minnow has 

 uniformly failed as a bait for trout. 



SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION. 



ORDER III. Thoracici. Ventral fins under the pectoral. 

 GENUS COTTUS. Coitus Gobio. Bullhead. 



" Acanthopterygii. With hard Cheeks. 

 " Coitus Gobio. LINN.EUS, Bloch, pt. ii. p. 39. 



CUVIER 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. 



" Head large, depressed; teeth in both jaws and vomer, small, 

 sharp, none on the palatine bones; preoperculum or operculum 

 armed with spines, sometimes both ; branch iostegous rays six ; gill 

 openings large, body attenuated, naked and without scales, two dorsal 

 fins distinct, or very slightly connected ; ventral fins small. 



" D. 6 to 917 or 18, P/15, V. 3, A. 13, C. 11." 



YARRELL, Brit. Fish, vol. i. p. 59. 



