153 



EOCK GOBY. 



BLACK GOBY. MILLEr's THUMB. 



Black Goby, Jonston; Table 15, f. 11, 12. 



WiLLOUGUBY; p. 206, plate N. 12, f. 1. 

 Gobius niger, Linn^i;s. Cuvier. Block ; pi. 38. 



Jenyns; Man., p. 305. 

 " " Yareell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 281. 



" " GuNTHER; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 11. 



Gohie Boulerot, Lacepede. Eisso. 



The name of Black Goby, by wbich it is often designated, 

 cannot with propriety be applied to this fish, which is met 

 with most frequently of a mottled greyish brown colour. We 

 therefore prefer a name taken from the rocks, among which 

 it commonly chooses to live, and where its peculiar habits are 

 more remarkably displayed. It is common on shores of this 

 description throughout the coasts of the British Islands, and 

 from the Mediterranean to the north of Europe. It is also 

 abundant in the Baltic, although of smaller size than with us; 

 but it is rare in other ground than that mentioned above. 



It is not easy to understand how this fish is able to obtain 

 access to some situations in which we find it, and in which it 

 reaches its largest size, and becomes adorned with its richest 

 colours. It breeds in the open sea, but there are pools in the 

 rocks, of such elevation that it is only in very high tides or 

 stormy weather that the water of the ocean can flow into them; 

 and into many of them a rill of fresh water is constantly 

 dribbling, so that the fluid becomes so fresh as to lose even 

 the taste of salt. These are the favourite resort of the larger 

 Gobies, and we can only explain how these fish have been 

 conveyed into such places, by supposing that they have seized 

 VOL. 11. X 



