NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 263 



opercula unarmed ; operculum well developed, as long as or longer than the 

 interval between it and the eye. 



Mouth with the cleft oblique, longitudinal, the periphery of each jaw semi- 

 elliptical, the supramaxillars under or nearly under the pupil ; lower jaw 

 slightly projecting beyond the upper; intermaxillars slightly protractile 

 downwards, with the posterior processes moderate, and the lateral branches 

 thick and attenuated towards their ends, but with a thin crest above ; supra- 

 raaxillars longer than the intermaxillars, behind the apophysis slightly twisted, 

 nearly rectilinear, compressed and slightly expanded downwards behind, and 

 produced towards the inferior angle. 



Tongue rather thin, oblong, truncated in front, and free. 



Teeth elongate, curved, acutely conic, pluriserial in front, continued to the 

 angles of the mouth ; enlarged and distant in front, in a row along the margin 

 of each jaw ; again increasing and bent backwards in the posterior row. 



Branchial apertures lateral, nearly vertical, above bounded by a membrane 

 attached in front of the axil of the pectoral; below continued forwards in a 

 short slit between the fourth branchiostegal ray and breast. 

 Branchiostegal rays five. 



Dorsal fins distinct ; the first with six spines, all flexible, the third generally 

 longest, the sixth remote; second oblong, generally increasing backwards, and 

 with most of its rays having an anterior simple and a posterior forked branch ; 

 the last ray free. 



Anal opposite and similar to the dorsal, nearly coterminal with it. 

 Caudal fin well developed, rounded behind. 



Pectoral fins rounded behind, at the base subvertical and not continued to 

 the plane of the breast, with its rays well defined, and, except one or two upper 

 and lower ones, branched. 



Ventral fins inserted below the base of the pectoral, very obliquely infurdi- 

 fuliform, the inner rays longest and well connected ; the interspinous membrane 

 low. 



Type, Coryphopterus glaucofrjenum. 



This genus is most nearly related among those hitherto named to Ctenogobius 

 Gill, but is distinguished from that type by the short, robust body, the less ab- 

 ruptly decurved snout, the dentition and want of bent canines in the lower jaw 

 in the male,* and the structure of the dorsal and anal fins.f The genus proba- 

 bly includes several species referred to Gobius, such as the Mediterranean G. 

 Lesueurii Risso.J 



Coryphopterus glaucofr^n dm Gill. 



The height of the body is contained about five times in the total length ; the 

 head about 4^, and the caudal nearly the same. The head is not far from 

 twice as long as high ; the diameter of the eye enters nearly 3 times in the 

 head's length, and is larger than the snout. The pectoral equals about a fourth , 

 and the ventral about a fifth, of the total length ; the dorsal and anal fins in- 

 crease in height backwards, where they about equal the height of the body. 

 * D. VI. 10. A. I. 9. P. 18. 



There were apparently twenty-five vertical rows of scales, and seven longitu- 

 dinal ones, between the dorsal and anal fins. 



The body is tawny, with a faint blue spot in the centre of each scale, and with 



* The presence of canine teeth in Clenogobius is asexual character; but in the new genus, these 

 teeth are probably absent in both sexes. 



f Cte.nogobiusfasciatus has six dorsal spines, although, by a typographical error, " V'has been 

 assigned to it in the original description. 



| In addition to Gobius, C'oryphogobius, Aphya, and Brachyochirus, there are several other genera 

 of European Gobies. G. minutus is the type of one (Pomatoschistus), distinguished by the small 

 scales, extension of branchial aperture above, (a character hitherto unnoticed,) Ac. G. quadrvmar 

 culatus, of another (Delientosteus.) allied to C'oryphogobius, but distinguished by the structure of the 

 dorsal and anal fins and the triangular shape of tlae lower pharyngeal bones. Both have several 

 species. 



1863.] 



