NATURAL tUSTORV. 
1 91 
Its head is small ; the irides of a pale yellow ; the body 
long and slender: its length seldom above ten inchc3, 
though in the above-mentioned list is an account of one 
that weighed a pound and a half; the scales smaller than 
those of the roach. 
The back is varied with dusky, with a cast of a yellowish 
green ; the sides and belly silvery ; the dorsal fin dusky ; 
the ventral, anal, and caudal fins red, but less than those 
of the former ; the tail is very much forked. 
The Chub. Salvianus imagines this fish to have been 
the squalus of the ancients, and grounds his opinion on a 
supposed error in a certain passage in Columella and 
Varro, where he would substitute the word squalus instead 
of scarus. 
That the scants was not our chub, is very evident ; not 
only because the chub is entirely an inhabitant of fresh 
waters, but likewise it seems improbable that the Romans 
would give themselves any trouble about the worst of river 
fish, when they neglected the most delicious kinds ; all 
their attention was directed towards those of the sea ; the 
difficulty of procuring them constituted the criterion of 
their value, as is ever the case with eflfete luxury. 
The chub is a very coarse fish, and full of bones ; it fre- 
quents the deep holes of rivers, and during summer, com- 
monly lies on the surface, beneath the shade of some tree 
or bush. It is a timid fish, sinking to the bottom on the 
least alarm, even at the passing of a shadow, but they will 
soon resume their situation. It feeds on worms, caterpil- 
lars, grasshoppers, beetles, and other coleopterous insects 
that happen to fall into the water : and it will even feed on 
cray-fish. This fish will rise to a fly. 
This fish takes its name from its head, not only in the 
English, but in other languages ; it is called chub, accord- 
ingto Skinner, from theold English, cop, a head; the French, 
in the same names call it testard ; the Italians, capitone. 
It does not grow to a large size ; we have known some 
that weighed above five pounds ; but Salvianus speaks of 
others that were eight or nine pounds in weight. 
The body is oblong, rather round, and of a pretty equal 
thickness the greatest part of the way ; the scales are large. 
The irides silvery; the cheeks of the same colour; the 
head and back of a deep dusky green ; the sides silvery, but 
in the summer yellow ; the belly white ; the pectoral fins of 
a pale yellow ; the ventral and anal fins red ; the tail a little 
forked, of a brownish hue, but tinged with blue at the end 
