ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



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A. Input, the Sea Wolf, or Sea Cat, is the most common species : it inhabits the north seas, and is very often 

 met with ; attaining the length of six or seven feet. Its colour is brown, clouded with darker. Its flesh 

 resembles that of an Eel. It is very valuable to the Icelanders, who salt its flesh for food, employ its skin as 

 shagreen, and make use of its gall as soap. [This large and formidable species is almost exclusively confined to 

 the northern seas, and in appearance it is a very repulsive fish. Its body is thick and lumbering, while the form 

 of the pectorals, the colours of the front, the proximate position of the eyes, and the great teeth, give it much the 

 appearance of a Cat, or even of one of the more formidable animals of that family. Its manners accord with its 

 aspect, for it is remarkably strong, very active, and equally ready to defend itself or attack an enemy. It often 

 enters the fishermen's nets for the purpose of plundering them of the entangled fish ; and when the fishermen 

 attack it, and it cannot dart through the net, it fights like a Lion. They maul it with handspikes, spars, and such 

 heavy timber as they may have in the boats ; but even when it is landed, and apparently dead, they are not quite 

 safe from its bite. On the east coast of Scotland, it is a frequent though by no means a welcome visitor ; and 

 though those who can overcome their aversion to its appearance find it wholesome and light food, yet it is a fish 

 which the majority would not receive gratis. It deposits its spawn in early summer, among the sea-weed, and is 

 understood to prey indiscriminately upon Fishes, Crustacea, and shelled Mollusca, its jaws and teeth being capable 

 of breaking the hardest shell. In the Arctic seas, which are its appropriate localities, it grows to a greater size 

 than on the British shores.] 



Gobius, the Gobies, or Sea Gudgeons, are easily recognized by the union of their ventrals, which are 

 thoracic, and united either for their whole length, or at their bases, into a single hollow disc, more or 

 less funnel-shaped. The rays of the dorsal are flexible, their gills have five rays only ; and, like the 

 Blennies, they have but little gill-opening : they can live for some time out of the water. Like the 

 Blennies, also, their stomach has no cul-de-sac, and their intestines no cceca. In their reproduction 

 they further resemble the Blennies ; and some species, as in these, are known to be viviparous. They 

 are small or middle-sized fishes, which live among rocks near the shore, and most of them have a 

 simple air-bladder. 



They admit of division into the following subgenera : — 



Gobius, comprehending the Gobies, properly so called. They have the ventrals united for the whole of their length, 

 and also a transverse membrane joining their bases in front, so as to form the whole apparatus into a concave disc. 

 The body is lengthened, the head moderate and rounded, the cheeks turgid, and the eyes near each other, and 

 they have two dorsal fins, the last of which is very long. Several species inhabit the European seas, the characters 

 of which are not sufficiently ascertained. They prefer a clayey bottom, in which they excavate canals, and pass 

 the winter in them. In spring they prepare a nest in some spot abounding with sea-weed, which they afterwards 

 cover with the roots of Zoster a (grass-wrack). Here the male remains shut up, and awaits the females, which 

 successively arrive to deposit their eggs ; and these he fecundates, and exhibits much solicitude and courage in 

 defending them from enemies. The Goby is the Phycis of the ancients ; according to Aristotle, " the only fish 

 that constructs a nest." 



G. niger, the Black Goby, or Common Goby, is the one most frequent on European shores. [It is only about 

 five or six inches long, and of scarcely any value, except as food for other fish. The margins of the united ventrals 

 form almost a perfect oval, and there is a tubercle behind the vent, the useof which is conjectured, but not known . 

 In the Mediterranean the species are much more numerous, have considerable variety of colour, and one, the Great 

 Goby (G. capito) grows to the length of a foot or more. Other British ones are, the Two-spotted Goby, a small 

 species with one dark spot under the base of thefirst dorsal, and another on the base of the caudal,— this is not above 

 two or three inches long; the Spotted Goby, about three inches long, yellowish, with pale rust-coloured spots, 

 very abundant in estuaries, or on shallow shores, and used by fishermen as bait ; and the Slender Goby, similar 

 to the preceding in colours and in length, but much more slender in the body. The habits of all are nearly 

 the same.] 



Other subgenera are,— Gobiodes, which differ from the Gobies in nothing but having one dorsal tin. Tenioides, 

 more lengthened in the body ; the lower jaw elongated, and rising over the upper one ; tongue very fleshy ; some 

 cirri on the lower jaw ; eyes extremely minute, and almost hidden. Periopt/ialmus : the entire head scaly ; eyes 

 with a moveable underlid ; the pectorals scaly for more than half their length, which gives them the appearance 

 of having wrists. [Indeed, this species leads naturally to the structure and habits of the family next to be noticed]. 

 Their gill-openings are still smaller in proportion than those of the Gobies ; and they can live for a longer time 

 out of the water. In the Molucca Islands, which they inhabit, they may be seen creeping and leaping over the 

 mud, either to escape from enemies, or to seize upon the minute Crustacea which constitute their food. Eleotris, 

 have, like the Gobies, flexible spines in the first dorsal, and an appendage behind the vent ; but they have the 

 ventral fins separate, and six gill-rays. They inhabit chiefly the fresh waters of warm countries, and lurk in the 

 mud. One, E. dormatri.r, the Sleeper, from the West Indian marshes, is tolerably large ; and others have been 

 found in Africa, in India, and in the Mediterranean. 



Callionymus, have two very striking characters : their gill-openings are only a hole on each side of the nape, 

 and their ventrals are placed under the throat, separate, and larger than the pectorals. The head is oblong, de 

 pressed, and with the eyes directed upwards; their intermaxillaries are very protractile, and their pre-operculi are 

 lengthened backwards, and terminate in some spines; their teeth are small, and thickly set, and they have none 

 iu the palate. They are finely-coloured fishes, with the skin smooth ; th'> first dorsal supported by setaceous rays, 



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