270 GOBIAD.E. 



Norway, from a supposed resemblance in shape to the blade 

 of a sword. 



It is a common small fish on our sea-shores, where it 

 may be frequently found in pools left by the tide, and 

 occasionally under stones or seaweed. In such situations as 

 those last named, from its great tenacity of life, it appears 

 to suffer little or no inconvenience, though left for several 

 hours ; moistened, externally only, by contact with the wet 

 seaweed or damp rocks. When found in a pool of water it 

 is observed to swim rapidly, and is difficult to catch, shifting- 

 its situation with great quickness, and creeping into very 

 small apertures ; it is not easy to retain it even when in hand, 

 from the abundance as well as the nature of the slimy secre- 

 tion aiding its muscular endeavours to escape. Its food is 

 marine insects, the spawn of other fishes and their fry. It 

 occurs generally on the rocky parts of the southern coast, 

 sometimes under stones in soft mud, and is found in Corn- 

 wall, Devonshire, and from thence eastward to the mouth of 

 the Thames. It has been taken in Berwick Bay, the Frith 

 of Forth, in Orkney, and Zetland. Linnaeus includes this 

 species in his Fauna Suecica, and other Northern Natu- 

 ralists have found it on the coast of Norway, as well as on 

 various parts of the shores of the Baltic. 



In Greenland the flesh of this fish, though hard, is dried 

 and eaten ; in this country it is seldom if ever made use of, 

 except as bait for sea-lines. It is said to attain the length 

 of ten inches : the more frequent size on our shores is from 

 five to seven inches. 



The length of the head is equal to the depth of the body, 

 and is, when compared with the whole length of the head and 

 body of the fish, without including the tail fin, as one to 

 eight. 



The head is small ; the line of the mouth directed ob- 

 liquely upward, the angle depressed, the lower jaw rather the 



