716 COB 
for vefiels carrying the metal from the neighbouring 
mines. Lit. 22. 20. S. Ion. 52. 30. W. Ferro. 
COB IRONS, /. Irons with a knob at the upper end.— 
The implements' of the kitchen ; as fpits, ranges, cobirons, 
and pots. Bacon. 
CO'BISHOP, f A coadjutant bifhop.—Valerius, ad¬ 
vanced in years, and a Grecian by birth, not qualified to 
preach in tire Latin tongue, made ufe of Aultin as a co- 
bijhop , for the benefit of the church of Hippo. Ayliffe. 
COBI'TIS, f in ichthyology, tire Loach ; a genus of 
fifines belonging to the orderofabdominal.es. The gene¬ 
ric characters are thefe: the eyes are placed at the top 
of the head, and protruded ; tjie body is round, and eel- 
fhaped. The head is final], long, and without fcales. 
The nape of the neck is fiat, and the mouth fmall, with 
barbies. The coverings of the gills are long, confiding 
of one thin plate; they are attached to the body by a fkin, 
but are loofe above ; fo that the apertures of the gills are 
fmalt, and only vilible on one fide. The membrane of 
the gills, which is alfo fmall, has from four to fix rays. 
The body is covered with lfripes, fpots, and with 3 kind 
of flimy matter. The fkin is covered with minute tender 
Icales, hardly vifible, but which eafiiy rub off. The un¬ 
der part of the body is long, and the anus is not far.from 
the tail. It has feven fliort fins : the peftorals are long, 
the tail round. The back is dfiait; there is only one dor- 
fal fin, and the lateral line is hardly vifible. The loach is 
a frefh-water fiflr, and feeds on worms, aquatic infedfs, See. 
The Greeks and Romans leem not to have been ac¬ 
quainted with it; at lead none of their deferiptions an- 
Iwer to our loach. Gmelin, in his lad edition of the 
Sydema Naturae of Linnaeus, enumerates fixlpecies, which 
are natives of frefh-water dreams and rivulets. 
1. Cobitis barbatula, the bearded loach. This fpecies 
as didinguifhed by fix barbies attached to the upper lip, 
four in the middle, and one, at each corner of the mouth. 
There are three rays to the membrane of the gills ; ten 
to the pefioral fin, nine to the ventral and dorfal, eight 
to the anal, and feventeen to the tail. The head turns 
down, ending in a blunt point; the upper jaw protrudes; 
the mouth is fmall and toothlefs, the eye is little. The 
body is rounded, and variegated with grey and white 
fpots, and covered with little fcales. The fins are grey; 
thofe of the back and tail-are marked with brown llripes, 
and are prickly. 
This fpecies rarely exceeds four or five inches in 
jlength. It is found in molt rivulets which have a ftony 
or flinty bottom ; particularly in mountainous countries. 
On the continent it inhabits the Bober, the Neilke, and 
the meadows of Truenbreizen ; at Paris, it is found in 
the Seine ; aifo at Mofcow in Ruflia, and in all the con¬ 
tiguous rivers. This fifh foon dies after it is out of the 
water, and even if left long in ftagnant or impure wa¬ 
ter. In fuch cafe its delicate tafte as food is much in¬ 
jured ; therefore the vefiels in which it is carried to mar¬ 
ket, or even front the river to the kitchen, fhould be 
kept in motion. Sometimes they drown it in wine. In 
order to preferve them alive, they fhould be put into a 
trough with holes, and placed in the ftream of a river, 
that it may continually receive a current of freflt water. 
This fifh furpaffes in tafte all the reft of the genus, par¬ 
ticularly in November and May. It is pretended that 
the talte is improved by the fifh being ftifled in wine or 
milk. Sometimes they are pickled like lampreys, and 
may be long preferved in that manner.- 
The bearded loach feeds on worms and aquatic infefrs ; 
it fpawns in March, and increafes very faft; when young, 
they are often the prey of other fifh ; they are taken in 
nets placed in the open ftream. They may be tranfported 
from one place to another ; this mult be done in fpawn- 
ing-time, and the veffel mult be kept in motion. Fre¬ 
deric I. king of Sweden, had fome brought from Ger¬ 
many, and naturalifed them in his dominions. We think 
it hardly n&ctflary to deferibe the methods purified for 
breeding the loach, as it is not much elteemed in this 
COB 
country; thofe who have curiofity that way may confute 
Bloch’s Ichtyologie, part i. p.180.— The liver and gall¬ 
bladder in this lpecies are large; the inteftina! canal is 
fhort; the heart is lozenge-fhaped, and of a vermiiiion 
colour. Viewing the fail through a microfcope we eafi.y 
difeover the circulation of the blood. The vertebrae are 
forty in number, apd the ribs twenty on each fide. 
2. Cobitis tenia, the ribbon-loach. This is diftinguifhed 
by a forked prickle on each fide of the head, not far from 
the eye, the lower point the longeft. There are three rays 
in the membrane of the gills, eleven in the peftoral fin, 
feven in the ventral, nine in the anal, eighteen in the 
tail, and ten in the dorfal. The head is truncated, bend¬ 
ing down in front, and comprefled at the fides, as is the 
whole body; infomuch that from its thinneis, and deco¬ 
rations, it derives its name. The upper jaw protrudes over 
the lower. The aperture of the mouth is narrow, long, and 
toothlefs: there are fix barbies,'two to the upper lip, and 
‘four to the under : thofe at tlie corners of the mouth are 
the longeft ; the others are fliort, but the fhorteft of all 
are, thole of the upper iip. The eyes are very fmall; the 
iris is wiiite, inclining to yell ,w. The nape and back are 
brown ; the ground-colour of the fides is a paie yellow, 
with four rows of brown fpots and dots of irregular fhapes. 
The lateral line, which divides the body into two equal 
parts, is hardly drfcehfijle. The whole body, which is 
leldom more than five or fix inches long, and half an 
inch broad, is covered with a viicous matter, under 
which are the fcales, which are minute, thin, and loft. 
The pectoral, anal, and tail, fins, are grey ; the reft yel¬ 
low; the dorfal is ornamented with five-rows of black 
dots; the tail-fin is broad, round, and has four rows of 
biack dots, of the lame colour with thofe of the body, 
but ftanding in a contrary direftion. 
This fpecies is found in rivers, commonly among 
ftones. It is found, among other places, in the Volga, 
and the rivers that run into it. It is a hardy fifti; and 
when taken makes a lot t of biffing, like the pond-loach. 
T wo of iheie fillies were put together into a g-fafs of ri¬ 
ver-water with iome land; in fine weather the pond- 
loach remained quiet, out the other was continually in 
motion'; its whoie body was agitated, particularly the 
lips, which quivered in th’e manner of thole of rabbits and 
frogs. The flefh of this fifh is hard and tough, lo that 
it is leldom eat.115 its prickles are difagreeabie, as they 
tear the hands when touched. But the pike, perch, and 
water-fowl, will devour them when other food is want¬ 
ing; fo that they might be of ufe to feed thofe fifh in. 
.ponds where they are bred. The ribbon-loach feeds on 
worms, aquatic infects, little fifh, and the larvae of other 
fifh. They fpawn in April and May, laying their eggs 
at the bottom of the water. The heart in this fpecies is 
not much larger than a grain of hemp-leed ; the liver is 
long, and reddiih ; the gall-bladder is fmall; the intefti- 
nal canal fliort, and without any finuofities. The fpine 
of the back is compofed of forty vertebrae, to which ar'e 
attached twenty-eight ribs on each fide. 
3. Cobitis follilis, the pond loach. Ten barbies to the 
upper lip, and four to the lower, are the diitinguifhing 
marks of this fpecies. Thefiiit are larger than the others; 
and, of the f mall ones, thole in the middle are the leaft. 
Thefe have a finguiar eft'eift, by placing the mouth, as it 
were, in the center of a liar.' There are four rays to the 
membrane of the gills; eleven to the peftoral fin ; eight 
to the ventral and anal, fourteen to the tail, and ieven to 
the dorfal. The Head ends in a point. The aperture of 
the mouth is long, and in each jaw are tweive littie ftiarp 
-teeth, of which the third, fourth, and fifth, come out 
beyond the reft. The tongue is fmall and pointed. The 
noltrils are near the eyes, with a prickle above them. 
The pupil of the eye is black, iurrounded with a golden- 
yellow iris. The cheeks, and the membrane of the gills, 
are yellow, with brown fpots. The nape is broad. Black 
is the prevailing colour of the whole body, but diveriified. 
with yellow and brown longitudinal ltripes, - and-here 
