48 ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



while from it to the back is 0"34 inches, showing that it is placed nearer to the 

 hack than to the inferior surface of the body. In G. pcecilopus, 3*80 inches 

 long, and in the British Museum, the distance from the lateral-line to the vent is 

 0*50 inches, while from the back it is 025 inches. 



The species of fresh water Gottus appear to have been very unduly multiplied, 

 while if every variation is to be looked upon as the type of a distinct species, 

 many more will have to be admitted. 



Names. — Miller' 1 s-thumb, due to its fancied resemblance to that digit in a miller. 

 " The thumb," says Yarrell, " by a peculiar movement spreads the sample over 

 the fingers, and employed with tact becomes the gauge of the value of the meal 

 produced. Hence the saying, ' worth a miller's thumb.' " By constant use the 

 miller's thumb is reputed to acquire a form resembling the shape of this fish : 

 bull-knob or bull-jub, Derbyshire : cull, Gloucestershire and in some other 

 counties : cob, according to Florio (see Glupea harengus) : cod-pole, Buckingham- 

 shire and Berkshire : noggle-head, South Hampshire : horbeau, Kent, also tom-cull 

 and tommy-logge. Pentarw and bawd y melinydd, Welsh. Ghabots and chaboisseaux, 

 French. Be rivier-donderpad, Dutch. 



Habits. — It usually lurks on the gravel at the bottom of clear streams or 

 under a stone. Here it feeds on insects and their larvte, worms, small Crustacea 

 and fish eggs, or conceals itself if pursued by enemies. Although it can dart for a 

 short distance rapidly through the water, it has no power of maintaining 

 swimming for any long distance, and never suspends itself in mid- water. It is a 

 voracious feeder, delighting on fish eggs or the young fry. It is most tenacious 

 of life even after removal from the water. Although it inflicts wounds with its 

 spines, these do not occasion the poisonous symptoms occasioned by the marine 

 weever, Trachinus, and that the cause of this difference is that it is a fresh-water 

 species cannot be sustained, as the scorpion fish, Saccobranchus fossilis, of Asia, is 

 always an inhabitant of fresh water. 



Newman* observed upon one which he kept, that it is curious to perceive how 

 readily the tints change, as may be seen in an aquarium, irrespective of changes 

 in accordance with the colour of the ground, the swallowing a worm, the effect 

 of a swimming adventure, and on one occasion the extrusion of ova. In short, 

 the fish could not have been recognized under its altered aspect. 



Means of capture. — Searching under stones in streams and capturing them by 

 small nets or by the hand ; in the latter process they are found difficult to 

 grasp owing to the slippery character of their skins. They will take a small 

 hook baited with a red worm. In Switzerland children are said to spear these 

 fishes in the streams as they dart from one stone to another. Cuvier considered 

 this fish as a good bait for an eel. 



Breeding. — It deposits its -ova in March or April under stones or in a hole it 

 forms in the gravel, and from which it is difficult to drive it. Whether both 

 sexes protect the eggs, or if only one, which it is does so, has been subject to 

 discussion. Marsigli asserts that the female rests for the space of a month on 

 the eggs, which are comparatively large and of a pinkish colour, the whole 

 constituting a mass covering about 1§ inches of ground, and invested by an 

 adherent mucus. Jonston and Willughby followed him, and stated that the 

 female collects the spawn into lumps on her breast, where it is covered with a 

 thick secretion, and here they remain until the young come forth. Fleming 

 affirms that it deposits its spawn in a hole in the gravel ; and Blumenbach that it 

 keeps watch over its nest. Newman tells us that one which he kept in an 

 aquarium deposited its ova on the night of Good Friday, that the mass was 

 nearly as large as a sparrow's egg, closely adherent, and somewhat resembling 

 frog's spawn. 



As food. — It has been asserted that this fish is good eating, and is employed 

 for food in Italy. In some localities its flesh becomes pink when boiled, but not 

 so in others. 



* Zoologist, 1856, xiv., p. 5124. 



