THE MINNOW — THE STICKLEBACK. 335 



NOTE XVIII. 



Small Jfrg. 



THE MINNOW THE STICKLEBACK. 



" Be minimis non curat Lex " — " The Law regards not 

 minims" — is an old adage, but one which I must disregard 

 for the nonce in continuing my notes on " Small Fry," as 

 I now come to " Nature's minim," the Minnow, so called 

 because he is a " minim," the tiniest (Latin, minimus) of 

 our fresh-water fish. The word " Minnow " is seen in the 

 old French menuise, "small fish," "fry," — from menu 

 "small." 



An old English name for the minnow was "pink." 

 Thus in the " Angler's Ballad," in Cotton, we read, — 



" And full well you may think, 

 If you troll with a pink, 

 One [i. e. fishing-rod,] too weak will be apt to miscarry." 



This name, it is said, was given to our little fish from the 

 " pink " or rosy colour of its belly in summer. Or is 

 the word really the old English pink, a small eye, an eyelet 

 (oeillet), eyelet-hole, and given as a title to the minnow on 

 account of his smallness ; or again is it the flower " pink," 

 also oeillet in French ? 



The little fish, though a humble member of the family, 

 takes his place among the Cyprinidce, or Carp, which I 



