PLATE XXII. 
if 
A native of Europe and Asia ; and most frequent in fresh water 
streams and lakes in mountainous countries. From its habit of 
lurking at the bottom of the water, on the gravel, it has been 
called the groundling ; but the latter name is now given to the Spiny 
Loche, a fish distinguished from the present by having a forked spine 
under each eye, and is that species of Cobitis which Gmelin calls 
Taenia. 
This is a fertile creature : it spawns in the month of March and 
April, and grows to the length of three or four inches, but seldom 
larger. It feeds on aquatic insects, and, we are told by Mr. Pennant, 
is frequent in the stream near Araesbury, i n Wiltshire, where the 
sportsmen, through frolic, swallow it down alive in a glass of wine. 
The Loche is found in far greater abundance in France, and other 
parts of Europe, than in England ; and are in such high estimation for 
their exquisite delicacy and flavour, that they are often transported with 
considerable trouble from the rivers they naturally inhabit, to waters 
more contiguous to the estates of the great. This is usually performed 
m Winter, and it is necessary to keep the water in continual agitation 
the whole way, as the fish would otherwise die. Frederic the First, 
King of Sweden, had them brought in this manner from Germany into 
his country, where they have been since naturalized ; a circumstance 
that leads us to conclude they were either scarce, or not originally 
natives of that country. 
In the dorsal fin. of our specimen, are nine rays ; in the pectoral, 
eleven ; ventral, eight ; anal, seven ; and in the tail, nineteen. 
