C O B I T I S. 
and there fome fpots. The belly is orange-coloured, with 
black dots. The pe&oral, dorfal, and tail, fins, are yel¬ 
low, fpotted, and ftreaked with black ; the tail is rounded 
oft' at the end ; the ventral and anal fins are yellow; the 
ventral fin is nearly oppofite the dorfal, which is nearer 
the tail than the head. The black vifcous matter with 
which this fifh is covered, made it long doubted whether 
it had fcales or not; but their exiftence is now afcertained. 
The pond-loach is found in moll of the flow-moving 
rivulets of this country, whofe bottom is muddy or flimy ; 
alfo in rivers and lakes on the continent that have the 
fame properties ; and in the low muddy parts of the Volga 
in Ruflia; the Tartars call it et-balik , dog-fifh. It is very 
tenacious of life, and will live either under the ice or in 
marflies, let there be never fo little water. When the 
marflies are drained, it hides itfelf in the mud; which 
has given rife to a fable related by Fabricius, and copied 
by Bibon, a Swedilh phyfician ; which is, that this fifti is 
born from the earth, and that hence Gefner has given it 
the name of cobitis fojfilis. It is true, it is often found 
burrowing in miry places after the water has been drained 
oft'; which has made fome believe that it comes out of 
the ground, and that it is only by inundations that it is 
carried into rivers. In ftormy weather, it comes to the 
furface of the water, and appears very uneafy; it may 
therefore ferve for a barometer, by putting it into a glafs 
with a little mud and fome rain or river water; for it 
will always be in agitation for four-and-twenty hours be¬ 
fore a ftorm comes on ; it moves up and down, and dis¬ 
turbs the water: but in calm weather it remains quiet in 
the mud at the bottom of the veflel. This filli may be 
kept alive in a room a whole year, only changing the 
water and mud twice a-week in fummer, and once in 
winter: in cold weather it Ihould be kept in a warm room, 
but near the window. This fifh often ejefls bubbles of 
air by the anus, which other fifties emit by the mouth : 
it is probable, that this fifh, having no air-bladder, emits 
by the anus the air he takes in with the water; while 
other fifties provided with that vehicle, emit it by the 
mouth. 
This fpecies grows to the length of ten or twelve 
inches, or longer, according to Richter. During win¬ 
ter, they hide themfelves in mud like eels; from whence 
they iflue in the fpring, to lay their fpawn on the herbage. 
They multiply fall, though they are often the prey of 
the pike, perch, and even of the crab ; which laft feizes 
the young ones with its claws, and kills them: frogs alfo 
devour the young when juft hatched. They live upon 
worms, infeffs, fmall fifh, and flime; yet feldom bite at 
a hook; they are taken in nets with grafs or weeds about 
them. Hoberg fays they are fond of getting into the 
fkeleton of a horfe’s fcull. The flefli is foft and infipid, 
therefore little efteemed, but is by fome reckoned deli¬ 
cious food when made into a kind of fauce ; and we are 
told that l'portfmen will f'ometimes fwallow down a fmall 
one alive in a glafs of wine. Tliofe who eat it endeavour 
to take away the flimy tafte by covering it alive with fait, 
which rubs off the vilcous matter, and to which that tafte 
is laid to be owing: it muft afterwards be well wafhed in 
water. Inltead offa.lt, afhes will anfwer the purpofe. 
The ftomach is finall; the inteftinal canal fliort, and 
without finuofity. The gall-bladder is large; the ovary 
and roe double; the ovary contains about 137,000 brown- 
ifh eggs about the bignefs of poppy-feed. In the brain, 
near the back of the head, there are two veficles which 
contain a milky fubftance. There are thirty ribs on each 
fide ; and forty-eight vertebrae in the back-bone. The 
colour, the ftripes, and the fpots, of this fifti, differ ac¬ 
cording to the quality of the water they are bred in ; fo 
that the diftinguifhing marks which Artedius gives from 
the colours and the ftripes are not correft. The colours 
•are cayfed by that vifcous matter with which it is co¬ 
vered ; and, when its belly is cleaned, the bright yellow 
colour is wafhed away. As fpirit of wine alfo takes away 
• Vol. 1 V. No. *32. 
7 1 7 
this vifcous matter, it is apparent why the fifti lofes its 
colour in fpirits. 
4. Cobitis anableps, the four-eyed loach. Artedius and 
Bloch make this a leparate genus, but Linnaeus places it 
with the cobitis. It differs, however, greatly both in 
external and internal ftrufture. 1. The cobitis, or loach, 
has the teeth in the gullet; but the jaws of the anableps 
are armed. 2. The air-bladder of the former is bony, of 
the latter membranous; and the one has this bladder at 
the nape of the neck, the other in the abdomen. 3. The 
former is oviparous, the latter viviporous. 4. The body 
of the former is comprelfed, of the latter flat as far as the 
ventral fin. 5. The eyes are extremely different. 6. The 
membrane of the gills has not the lame number of rays. 
7. The fcales in this are large and obvious to the fight, 
whereas in the loach they are fo fmall and thin, that more 
than one writer has denied their exiftence. The eyes 
extremely prominent, and two barbies at the mouth, form 
the fpecific chara&er. The branchioftege membrane has 
five rays, the peftoral fin twenty-two, the ventral feven, 
the anal nine, the tail nineteen, and the dorfal fCven. 
The head of this fpecies is broader than high, and fore- 
fliortened; the lower jaw is the longeft, and it lengthens 
downwards, not in front like other fifh. Both jaws, as 
well as the palate and tongue, are armed with teeth; the 
barbies arife from the corners or extremities of the upper 
lip. The noftrils are fingle, and near the mouth. The 
eyes are very remarkable : there are two diaphanous parts, 
or a double pupil, which lias caufed it to be called four- 
eyes at Surinam. The cavity of the eyes differs from other 
fifties: this cavity is not a funnel, as in other animals, 
buc a part of one only; on each fide at the top of the 
head there is an arched thin bone advancing towards the 
fcull; thefe bones face each other with their concave 
furfaces; the eye is cylindrical, and is fixed in this ca¬ 
vity, but rifes above it; the pupil is feen above the fur- 
face, enclofed in a black iris ; as the cornea is equally 
luminous in the internal part, the pupil is feen double. 
A more minute examination of the eye exhibits the fol¬ 
lowing phenomena: 1. A tranfverfe line divides the eye 
externally into two pupils of unequal fize. 2. A pro¬ 
longation of the tunica choroidea and of the tunica argen- 
tea, which fiflies only pofiefs, divides the pupil within 
into two parts, the anterior and pofterior. The upper 
pupil, which is the largeft, is edged with a blackifh iris, 
where the tunica argentea of that fide is covered by the 
tunica choroidea. 3. The linaller and lower pupil has a 
filvery iris, as the upper edge of the lengthened tunica 
argentea is not covered by the tunica choroidea, any more 
than its lower part. The embryo of this fifh, exhibited 
in the engraving at a, fliews the prolongations of the two 
tunicles of the eye; but, as the coloured tranfverfe line 
is wanting, and as the two prolongations do not meet’in 
the middle, the pupil does not appear divided. The 
gill-coverts are fmooth and flippery. The body upwards 
is broader than it is thick; but it takes a rounded form 
towards the tail. The fides are ornamented with five lon¬ 
gitudinal dark-brown ftripes; they run quite to the tail, 
where the two outermoft are comiedted by a tranfverfe 
ftripe, and the three middlentoft by another. The lateral 
line is fcarcely vifible ; the anus is nearer to the tail than 
to the head. The dorfal fin is fmall, and near the tail. 
All the fins, except the ventrals, are covered moftly with 
fmall fcales ; on the body the fcales are Larger, 
Befides the extraordinary ftrufture of the eye, this fifti 
is diftinguifhed by three other peculiarities, 1. It is vi¬ 
viparous. The matrix confilts of a large fac with a thin 
membrane; the fac feenis divided in two parts, one fome- 
what longer than the other. This fac contains a quan¬ 
tity of young fifh, each wrapped diftinftly in a fine trans¬ 
parent membrane. Each fifh appears lying in a yel¬ 
low globule like the yolk of an egg, as fhewn in the en¬ 
graving at a. 2. The anal fin of the male differs greatly 
from that of the female. In this laft, the nine rays of 
2 U that 
