The Loach . 
367 
to breed fleas and lice; among which the chalcis, a kind of turgot, is 
one.” 
The sense of the Carrier s remark is by no means obscure; 
it is simply this, that fleas are abundant, and to attempt 
precisely to explain the utterances of such a dull-brained 
fellow is as idle as the “ famous inquiry into the probable 
character of the husband of Juliet’s nurse.” 
“ The dainty Gudgeon, loche, the minnow, and the bleake. 
Since they but little are, I little need to speak 
Of them, nor doth it fit me much of those to reck, G-udgeon. 
Which every where are found in every little beck.” 
{Polyolbion, song xxvi.) 
The facility with which the gudgeon is captured in 
certain localities is proverbial; things easily won are apt 
to be lightly regarded. It may be on this account that 
Gratiano advises Antonio — 
“ Fish not with this melancholy bait 
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.” 
{Merchant of Venice, i. 1.) 
The gudgeon was considered a wholesome fish, per¬ 
haps owing to the possibility of keeping it alive in fresh 
water till it was required. Muflett writes: “Gulls, guffs, 
pulches, chevins, and millers thombs are a kind of jolt- 
head gudgins, very sweet, tender and wholesome.” The 
miller’s thumb is now placed by naturalists among the 
spiny-finned fishes, next to the gurnet. 
“ And last the little Minnow-fish, Minnow 
Whose chiefe delight in gravell is.” 
(Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals , book i. song ii.) 
The Minnow, Menise, Pink, or Penk, was often used as 
bait for taking larger fish. Of this small swimmer, 
Muffett writes:— 
“ Minoes, so called either for their littleness, or (as Dr. Cajus 
imagined) because their fins be of so lively a red, as if they were died 
