OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 333 



This fish was taken in abundance at Cape Grenville. It seems 

 to be very subject to variation. Some specimens are much more 

 elongate than the one described, the height of the body being six 

 times in the length, and many of them have two canines close 

 together on one side of the lower jaw, though curiously enough 

 we have never been able to detect them on both sides in any 

 specimen. The average size of the species is three and a-half 

 inches. 



74. GOBIODON VERTICALIS. 



Plate XII., fig. 4. 



Body very compressed. Profile vertical, with the mouth small 

 and nearly in the centre. Eyes small and near the top of the 

 head. Height of body nearly one-half of the total length. 

 Ventral fins short. The body shows two longitudinal impressions 

 — one near the back, the other near the belly, and the transverse 

 lines of the muscles are very distinct. The colour is yellow, with 

 all the fins more or less black. 



This fish was found abundantly in the inmost recesses of dead 

 coral, hi positions where it had probably been born, and from 

 which there could certainly have been little chance of escape. 

 Gobiodon histrio, Cuv. and Yal., is the nearest approach to this 

 species of all those hitherto described. The much greater propor- 

 tionate depth of G. verticalis, and the absence of tubereules on the 

 forehead, will at once serve to distinguish them. 



75. —Gobiodon Ceramensis. 



Gobius ceramensis, Bleek, Ceram. 2, p. 704. 



A good many specimens of what we believe to be this species 

 were found in the same localities, and under the same circum- 

 stances as the preceding species. Its proportions are very different, 

 and the profile is not vertical. ^ (fT7 """--. 



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