GOBIIDJE. 361 



conspicuous : the dorsal and anal are received into grooves, 

 and when lowered into them are invisible. Owing to the 

 elasticity of the membrane these fins are not easily kept ex- 

 tended unless carefully pinned out, and on that account the 

 rays are not readily reckoned. From that cause, the artist has 

 represented too few rays in the dorsal of fig. 1, a mistake 

 having been made in the enumeration. All the dorsal rays 

 are spinous, the anterior ones being graduated, and the first 

 anal ray is simple, and either spinous or with obsolete joints. 

 Both fins terminate near the caudal, but are scarcely joined to 

 its base. The caudal has a slight tendency to the rhomboidal 

 form, with the upper and under corners rounded off. Pectoral 

 large, but falling more than its own length short of the arms. 

 Ventrals small, slender, and pointed, composed of a short 

 spine and two jointed rays, visible enough, with two others, 

 very slender and shorter, looking like a single ray fissured to 

 the base. All lie side by side, enveloped in a thickish white 

 skin, without any intervening extensible membrane. 



Markings. Head and body mottled with a row of about 

 twelve larger, irregular marks along the middle of the side, 

 touching or passing over the lateral line : a series of oblique, 

 faint, and ill-defined bars on the generally pale ground of the 

 dorsal ; better defined cross bars on the pectoral ; anal pale ; 

 caudal obscurely barred. There are no traces of lines parallel 

 to the lateral line, such as Professor Reinhardt mentions in his 

 notice of Clinus unimaculatus. The want of eyed spots in the 

 dorsal, and the lateral line continued to the caudal, distin- 

 guishes nubilus at first sight from G. punctatus : how far it 

 differs from M. Pylaie's Newfoundland Gunnellus, mentioned 

 in the ' Histoire des Poissons/ I am unable to say from the 

 briefness of the notice. 



Dimensions. 



Total length, caudal included 5 '60 inches. 



From tip of maxillary symphysis to point of gill-flap . 0'82 



From tip of maxillary symphy sis to amis . '. . . . 2' 15 



Height of head at the gill-plates 0-42 



Width there 0'32 



VOL. II. 2 B 



