THE MILLER'S THUMB — THE CRAYFISH. 347 



long before him, Cottus gobio used to be bunted for under 

 stones, for the sake of bis meat. Dr. Badbam says tbat 

 it "turns to tbe colour of salmon when boiled, and is 

 beld a delicacy ;" wbile Salter avers, " tbey are fine eat- 

 ing after tbe beads are cut off." I confess, notwithstand- 

 ing my extensive gastronomical investigations, I bave 

 never tasted a bull-bead ; but I will tbe next time I bave 

 a cbance, and make a memorandum of my sensations for 

 future use. With tbe bead off, however, there will be 

 little left to discuss as an epicure. 



A word or two anent an interesting little denizen of 

 the Thames and its tributaries, and of other English 

 waters— the Eiver Cray-fish. This is not, properly 

 speaking, a " fish," but a crustacean. It is our fresh- 

 water lobster, though of diminutive proportions, seldom 

 exceeding four inches in length. It is very like the 

 lobster in all particulars of shape and colour, tbougb tbe 

 body is flatter and the claws rougher ; and, like tbe 

 lobster, it turns red when boiled. Like tbe lobster also, 

 the cray periodically shuffles off his shelly coil, and gets 

 him a new jacket ; and once more, like their sea-water 

 cousins, crays are wonderfully prolific. Crays too, like 

 Nestor, are said to be very long-lived. According to 

 naturalists, our little crustacean belongs to the genus 

 Astacus, and is called by way of distinction Astacus 

 fluviatilis, tbat is the "river astacus." The title 

 "cray," which is the same as, or rather I should say 

 another form of, "craw," our little friend being a 

 relative of tbe huge " crawfish," is a corruption of the 

 old High German Urchin, now crebs, or of the French 

 ecrevisse, the letters cr being evidently the old root. 



He is found, as I have said, in the Thames and its 



