THE GOBY FAMILY. 185 



Purple striped Gudgeon (Krefftius adspersus) of the 

 Western River-system of New South Wales, being often 

 taken to be the young of the Murray Cod. 



In New South Wales, one of the commonest kinds is 

 the Striped Gudgeon of which the natural habitat is the 

 Eastern watershed. It is rather prettily striped with dark 

 longitudinal bars and the dorsal and anal fins are very beau- 

 tifully variegated; the latter being a feature common to 

 most of the Gudgeons, being more particularly apparent in 

 the males and during the spawning season. 



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Fig. 66. STRIPED GUDGEON (Krcfftius aitstralia). 



In the creeks and waterholes around Sydney, this little 

 fish which attains a length of about 5 inches is known 

 under quite a variety of names by different "schools" of 

 boys ; one very inappropriate name being that of "Cod." 



Anyone having a little knowledge of fish life and at 

 the same time possessed of some insight into the conditions 

 which gOA^ern our Australian land water-system, might sup- 

 pose that the Gudgeons which live in all sorts of out-of- 

 the-way waterholes, creeks and lagoons subject to a periodi- 

 cal drying-up would show great tenacity of life and adap- 

 tability to conditions Avhich would be absolutely fatal to 

 many aouatic organisms ; and this they certainly do in a 

 very marked degree. When the pond or creek in which 

 any of these are situated, begins to show signs of drying 

 up, the Gudgeons burrow into the mud, and so long as the 

 mud keeps a little damp, they are able to remain alive for 

 a very long time. Recently, I had an experience of the 

 tenacity of life of the Purple-striped Gudgeon before re- 

 ferred to. A parcel of fish specimens had been brought 

 to me. for identification of species, from Wagga Wagga, 



