157 



PAGANELLUS. 



Paganellus, Willoughby; p. 207, Table IST. 12, f. 4. 



Faganel, Lacepede. Eisso. 



Gohius paganellus, Linn^us. 



" " GuNTHER; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 52, 



This species has been generally overlooked in British natural 

 history, or confounded with the Rock Goby, which it resembles 

 so closely that it will be described best by comparing it with 

 that species, and noting the circumstances in which they differ, 

 as is done by Willoughby, in the following particulars: It 

 seldom groAVs so large, and its colour is usually more pale, 

 (although we admit that the degree or variation of colour is 

 little to be depended on in the distinction of species in this 

 family. The first dorsal fin is marked along its border with 

 a line of yellow or pink colour. In regard to structure, the furrow 

 in front of the dorsal fins is less deep and not so long; and, 

 what is more observable, the head is something shorter, and 

 the jaws more distended. The membrane which connects 

 together the external rays of the ventral fins does not rise so 

 high; but the distinction advanced the last, where the Paganellus 

 is said to keep in rocky ground, and the first-described species, 

 on the contrary, prefers that which is oozy, seems less appro- 

 priate, since some of the examples of the Paganellus which I 

 have seen, and which were obtained from the north shores of 

 Somersetshire, through the kindness of E. T. Higgins, Esq., 

 were procured from a bottom where only sand or ooze was to 

 be found. AVhether it will, like the Rock Goby, by choice 

 live in fresh or slightly brackish water, seems less certain; but 

 the extent of its range appears to imply that it is more sus- 

 ceptible to the impression of cold than the Rock Goby; for 

 although it has been fou.nd in Scotland and the south of 

 Ireland, as well as in the north of Somersetshire and Cornwall, 



