162 



TWO-SPOTTED GOBY. 



DOUBLY-SPOTTED GOBY. 



Gobius Btitliensparri, Cuvier. 



" bipunctatus, Yarrell; Br. Pishes, vol i, p. 285. 

 " Buthensparri, Gunther; Cat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 76. 



There is a little natural section of the family of Gobies, in 

 which the species differ from those we have described, as well 

 in form as habits, but of which the characters have not been 

 marked with the discrimination required to determine the 

 species, and of which therefore more than one or two have 

 been confounded together. These we shall endeavour to dis- 

 tinguish; and, however unwilling to increase the number of 

 synonymous names of fishes which may have been noticed 

 and defined by foreign naturalists in books to which I have 

 not obtained access, I shall be compelled for the sake of 

 perspicuity, to apply to one or two of them names not hitherto 

 in use, but which will be expressive of some individual 

 character or peculiarity. 



This small division of the genus is formed of fishes of small 

 size, which on that account receive little notice from fishermen; 

 who are not aware of the fact that they are of value to them 

 so far as that they form the food of species of larger size, 

 which, in pursuit of them, are drawn within the reach of their 

 productive labour. Indeed so small are these Gobies, that for 

 the most part they cannot be preserved in collections in the 

 manner of the greater number of fishes; and, besides the 

 shrinking which they undergo if preserved in spirit, their 

 colours, which are usually of much beauty, will generally be 

 found to vanish if thus treated; which circumstance will serve 

 to explain how it is we meet with such imperfect representations 

 of them in works on the history of nature. 



