368 SUPPLEMENT ON 



and gliding swiftly over the surface of the waters, and in 

 escaping from the tops of the rocks, where it is sometimes 

 found dry, and from whence it darts by numerous and rapid 

 leaps into the middle of the waves. The blennii all live in 

 the sea, near rocks, into the deepest clefts of which they 

 sometimes retire ; accordingly, in the time of Pliny, it has 

 been believed that they could pierce stones, and (by a rational 

 deduction) that they consequently presented a salutary and 

 lithontriptic nutriment to persons afflicted with the stone. 



The fishes of the genius Gobius have been supposed by 

 Belon and Rondelet to be the same as those so called by the 

 ancients ; a fact, however, which may be considered doubtful. 



These fishes usually remain upon the sand ; they even fre- 

 quently conceal themselves in it altogether. Most of the 

 species have recourse to stratagem to procure their food ; 

 their glutinous body is covered with mud, and thus masked 

 they approach slowly to the little animals which are to 

 become their prey. 



It is also asserted that the sort of funnel produced by the 

 union of their catopes, performs with these animals the office 

 of a cupper or sucker, by the aid of which they keep them- 

 selves fixed upon the solid bodies which they meet with at 

 the bottom of the waters. 



The Gobius niger, Lin., or boulereau, Lacep., is usually 

 about six or seven inches long : it frequents all the seas of 

 Europe, where it feeds on small fish and marine worms. It 

 is common in the North Atlantic, where it comes to spawn 

 in spring on the coasts and at the mouths of great livers ; it 

 equally inhabits many Asiatic seas, and is ve*"/ much ex- 

 tended in the Grecian Archipelago. It is easily taken with 

 the line. 



The flesh of this fish has considerable analogy in taste 

 with that of the perch. At the present day it forms a general 



