PLATE LXXT. 
Waters they inhabit, their food, and age, have each a considerable 
influence upon the colours of this fish, and will easily account for the 
Variations we so frequently observe in different individuals of this 
species* 
The Gudgeon is a fish that seldom increases to a large size. None 
t»f the continental writers speak of its being found above eight inches 
in length. Pennant remarks, that the few which are caught in 
the Kennel and Cole are three times the weight of those found 
elsewhere. The largest he ever heard of, was taken near Ux- 
bridge, and weighed half a pound. Tire flesh of the Gudgeon is white, 
of a delicious flavour, and so easy of digestion, as to be strongly re- 
commended to sick persons. The voracity of this fish is known to 
every angler: it bites greedily, and may be more readily caught than 
many other fishes. Even by raking the bed of the rivers w'here they 
inhabit, the Gudgeons may be enticed to the spot in shoals, for they 
resort thither in quest of the worms turned up, and by repeating this 
about every quarter of an hour, the shoals will be successively en- 
creased so greatly, that they may be caught in any numbers. The 
offal of animals, or bullock’s brains thrown into the water, will pro- 
duce the same effect. Marsigli speaks of its fondness for human 
flesh : he observes, that during the wars between the Austrians and 
the Turks some years ago, when several battles were fought on the 
banks of the Danube, and the mangled remains of both men and 
horses were thrown into the river, the Gudgeons devoured the former 
tvith voracity, but would not eat the horse flesh. 
In the dorsal fin of the specimen figured in our plate there are 
Cl ght rays ; pectoral fin fourteen : ventral eight : anal eleven ; and 
,n the tail twenty-one. 
MS 
