360 GOBIIDJE. 



but these two fish differ so much in the number of their fin- 

 rays that they cannot well be brought into the same species. 



Description. 



Form. Body compressed, but not nearly so much so as that 

 of G. vulgaris or fasciatus, the depth, excluding the dorsal, 

 being so much less, that where it is greatest it does not exceed 

 one-eleventh of the total length, caudal included, while in fas- 

 ciatus the height is one-ninth of the length. The body is 

 thicker than the head, and both back and belly are rounded 

 anterior to the vent, the compression increasing rapidly in the 

 taH. 



Scales very small, round, so deeply imbedded as not to be 

 readily seen, but numerous on the body, and more crowded on 

 the tail. Lateral line straight, running at midheight, and con- 

 sisting of a fine groove. It does not readily catch the eye, 

 and has been omitted by the artist in the figure. No scales 

 on the fins. 



Teeth. A series of acicular teeth arm the orifice of the mouth, 

 standing rather widely on both jaws. On the premaxillaries 

 there is, in addition, an interior band of very minute villiform 

 ones, and near the symphysis of the mandible there is a cluster 

 two or three deep. No forked tongue is perceptible, nor is 

 there any projection from the hyoid bone meriting the name 

 of tongue. No teeth exist on the vomer or palate bones. 

 There is a small velum behind the premaxillaries. A small 

 point of the gill-plate projects over the gill opening. 



The gill opening is carried forward underneath (fig. 2), the 

 gill membranes being inserted far forward between the limbs 

 of the mandible into a very narrow isthmus, instead of crossing 

 the throat immediately before the ventrals, and having a free 

 edge, as in G. vulgaris and fasciatus. From these nubihis 

 differs also in having six branchiostegous rays on each side, 

 cylindrical, curved, and graduated. 



Fins. The fin membranes generally are more delicate than 

 those of G. vulgaris and its near allies, not being enveloped in 

 thick, but in translucent integument, so that the rays are 



