Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/118

BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES we boys endeavoured to catch one of these "bearded" fishes. The Loach is an adept at taking cover under a stone, and as it keeps very close to the bottom it is difficult to locate. It belongs to the Cohitidcey and is not distantly related to the Carp. The very small body scales can hardly be discerned even on close examination. The colour may be brownish, greenish, greyish, or yellowish, marbled and spotted with darker colour, with whitish underneath. There are small spots of blackish on the fins. It rarely exceeds 3 to 5 inches in length, and has three pairs of barbels. Night appears to be the feeding-time, as in daylight the Loach hides itself under stones, and even if dislodged will make haste to take cover under another stone in the near vicinity. The food is made up of the more usual fish diet which has so frequently been mentioned in our account of other species.

Spined Loach.—Cohitis tcenia (Fig. 55). This still smaller species has the prefix Spined attached to its name because of the possession of a kind of two-forked "spine" which is only raised when the fish is moving about. When in repose, the spine fits into a small groove 100