334 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



the habits of the common pond loach the title of " fidget " 

 was applied to all the cousins. The " common pond 

 loach " is certainly a " fidget," for though he buries him- 

 self under the mud, especially in chilly weather, and takes 

 long naps there, he comes out of it pretty frequently, and 

 amuses himself with rolling and wallowing in it till he has 

 made the water cloudy and dirty enough to his liking. 

 Dr. Badham says that fossilis invariably goes through 

 this exercise on the approach of bad weather, and hence 

 that some people keep loach in glass globes to act as 

 animated barometers, for their uneasy, " fidgety " move- 

 ments give notice of a coming storm some twenty-four 

 hours beforehand. I have never had an opportunity of 

 testing this prescience of the loach, but I know that it 

 is very generally believed in as a weather prophet. 



The loach has been well spoken of gastronomically ; old 

 Izaak considering it a " dainty dish at table," and Gesner 

 prescribing it as an invalid's fish. But this only of the 

 "river " loach, not of his muddy pond cousin, the "ditch or 

 mud coby." For my own part, I think a loach very poor 

 eating, at all events, far inferior to the gudgeon. The 

 best thing to do with a loach when you catch one is to 

 examine it from a naturalist's point of view, and then 

 return it to its native element. It is useless as a live bait 

 for jack, being too delicate to survive much rough treat- 

 ment or exposure to -the air. In Scotland, however, loach 

 are used for spinning baits for lake trout, especially in 

 bright weather ; and the method of getting them is to 

 wade up a shallow burn and spear them with a fork — by 

 no means a difficult process, for like the ostrich, the poor 

 little loach seem to have an idea that their whole body is 

 concealed when the head is hidden under a stone. 



