FAM. XXI. CICHLID^E. FAM. XXII. GOBIID^E. 225 



Named for Professor D. G. Elliot, Curator of the Department of 

 Zoology, Field Columbian Museum, whose kind interest and coop- 

 eration have much aided and encouraged the writer in the preparation 

 of this paper. 



Family XXII. Gobiidse. 

 THE GOBIES; "ABOMAS." 



Body oblong or elongate, naked or covered with ctenoid or cycloid 

 scales; teeth usually small; premaxillaries protractile; suborbital 

 without bony stay; opercle unarmed; preopercle unarmed or with a 

 short spine; pseudobranchiae present; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; 

 gill membranes united to the isthmus ; no lateral line ; dorsal fins con- 

 nected or not; ventral fins close together, separate, or completely 

 united, when united forming a sucking disk, a cross fold of skin at 

 their base completing the cup ; no pyloric cceca ; usually no air bladder. 

 Carnivorous fishes usually of small size living on the bottoms near 

 shores in warm regions ; some live in fresh water. 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF GOBIIDyE. 



a. Ventral fins separate, the rays 1,5; body scaly. PAGE 



b. Vomer with a broad patch of villiform teeth; 



skull above with conspicuous ridges Philypnus 226 



bb. Vomer without teeth, skull without crests, 

 c. Body short, rather deep; scales large, less 



than 40 in the lateral series Dormitator 227 



cc. Body long and slender; scales small, more 



than 40 in the lateral series Eleotris 228 



aa. Ventral fins united, forming a sort of disk 



which is free from the belly, 

 d. Maxillary normal, not produced behind the 

 oval opening; supraoccipital and temporal 

 . ridges continuous; scales ctenoid; dorsal 



spines 6. 

 f . Inner edge of shoulder girdle without fleshy 



dermal flaps; preorbital region short Gobius 229 



ff. Inner edge of shoulder girdle with 2 or 3 



dermal flaps; preorbital region very long. .Chonophorus 232 

 dd. Maxillary much produced backward, ex- 

 tending beyond gill opening in the adult; 

 supraorbital and temporal crests not con- 

 tinuous; scales cycloid Gillichthys 234. 



