1 72 THE GOBY FAMILY. 



superiorly. " The surface of the head and body is covered 

 with a dull olive-green pigmentation, which is only absent 

 from the pectoral and marginal fins, opercular flap and tips of 

 the jaws. The green colour is somewhat darker on the top of 

 the head and abdomen than elsewhere, and dotted with small 

 black chromatophores. Four bands of reddish-brown cross the 

 body at various points, viz. behind the air-bladder, at the vent, 

 at the base of the tail, and between the latter and that at the 

 vent. The body is thus more or less opaque 1 ." 



THE DOUBLY-SPOTTED GOBY. (Gobius flavescens, Fabr.) 



The eggs (Plate II, fig. 13) are somewhat similar to those 

 of the freckled goby, and are attached to dead shells of 

 mollusks and cirripedes (sea-acorns), the male, as in the 

 other gobies, keeping guard over them. In the Scandinavian 

 Fishes the spawning-season is stated to extend from May to 

 August, and Mr Roberts, who kept them in the Scarborough 

 Museum, found that the eggs hatched on the 16th day. 

 Dr Petersen observed this species spawning in June in the 

 clear and pure water of the enclosed Fjords of Denmark 

 in the grass- wrack region, the eggs being attached to smooth 

 spruce-stakes, to loose grass-wrack, tangles (Plate II, fig. 14) 

 and other structures. Their long diameter is '8 mm. and where 

 broadest '(J mm., the British examples being larger. They are 

 also fastened by the characteristic network of the other species. 

 The yolk is opaque, gritty, and slightly brownish, with many 

 reddish-brown oil-globules. He thinks that it deposits its eggs 

 in deeper water than the other two species mentioned, an 

 opinion in agreement with experience in this country. 



The early stages of the young of this species have not yet 

 been described with sufficient care to warrant separate con- 

 sideration at present. Suffice it to say that they occur in 

 swarms in the rock-pools all round our eastern shores in August 

 and September, reaching in the latter month from 20 to 30 mm., 

 while in the following July they attain the length of 47 mm., 



1 E. W. Holt, op. cit. p. 441, PI. 47, f. 12. 



