THE MILLER'S THUMB — THE CRAYFISH. 345 



these fish as regards his body — i. e. without its head — and 

 if this were cut off, and the rest of him shown to an 

 unskilled naturalisb, he might be puzzled to name the 

 decapitated trunk. It is the head of the Gottus gobio 

 which is his distinguishing feature — and a very distin- 

 guishing one it is, weighing, I should think, half of his 

 entirety. Indeed, he might roughly be described as " all 

 head." Hence his title in the "vulgar tongue," bull- 

 head and miller's thumb. In reference to the latter sobri- 

 quet, I must confess my ignorance as to the origin of the 

 idea that a miller's thumb, or the top joint of it (to make 

 it a title applicable to our Gottus), is abnormally large ; 

 but I have read (in Yarrell, I think,) that certain depart- 

 ments of a miller's work cause this enlargement, though 

 I don't believe it. I remember also to have read a story 

 of a supposititious child being placed out to nurse in a 

 miller's family, and the question of its identity a long time 

 afterwards hanging on the formation of its thumb ; the 

 thumb thus seeming to be considered "congenital" with 

 millers' children. However, I will not pursue this point. 

 It is sufficient to know that, either as a vulgar belief or as 

 an actual fact, a miller has a thumb with an unusually 

 large top joint ; and hence the appropriateness of one of 

 the titles of the little fish in question. "Bull-head" 

 explains itself, the prefix " bull," as found in many words, 

 signifying "large," "heavy," "ugly" — all combined 

 more or less. There can be no doubt, therefore, as to the 

 appropriateness of this appellation, for our Gottus is par 

 excellence the most " bull-headed" of all our fresh-water 

 fish, large or small, and is certainly entitled to be thus 

 opprobriously designated. It is no libel, as it is to call a 

 chub a" loggerhead." 



