286 



NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



French chabot, by which name the fish is called across 

 the Channel ; and even the harmless Swedes term him 

 Jcubb, which signifies a " short and thick piece of wood," 

 and, applied to the fish, is their equivalent to our " log- 

 gerhead." " Cheven," " chevin," or " chavender " are 

 the names by which old Father Izaak delighted to call 

 him, and by the two first of which he is still known in 

 some districts — names connected with the above, or 

 coming more direct perhaps from the French chef, a "head," 

 from caput, though only used metaphorically. The Welsh 

 perpetuate the libel by calling the chub penci, "pen" 

 meaning a " head ;" but what is the origin of their other 

 term for him, cochgangen, I know not. Nor do I know 

 whence a writer in the Daily Telegraph, in a recent article 

 on fishing, gets the term " chuckle -headed," which it 

 pleases him to apply as a term of reproach to the poor 

 chub. The Scotch call him shelly, which (I shall hazard 

 the conjecture) is a form of " skully," from " skull." 

 Quasre, — Can there possibly be any connexion between 

 chub and cherub ? Cherubs, according to the paintings 

 of old masters, have " chubby " (cherubby) faces, i. e., 

 pleasantly fat. And can it be possible after all that our 

 forefathers gave the name chub to the fish by way of 

 compliment, and to signify that he was the cherub-iish, 

 or fish with the sweet fat face ? But here I must stop my 

 etymological pen. 



Ichthyologically, there is not much to be said of the 

 chub ; but it has often struck me, on looking at one of 

 these fish, that they are wanting in distinctiveness as a 

 class. I do not mean to suggest that they are hybrids, 

 but they seem to me to want the marked differences 

 which distinguish most other fish, and to present a kind 



