266 ACANTHOPTERYGII. FAMILY OF GOBIES. 



number of the small fishes into a tumbler glass of 

 sea-water, and kept them alive for many days, 

 changing the water every tide : they grew a good 

 deal bigger, and continued very lively, till on a hot 

 day, forgetting to refresh them with clean water, they 

 died to the last fish. Dr. Neill informs us, that in 

 February 1807, he saw a large female in the fish- 

 market, from which several dozens of young ones 

 escaped alive, and although the birth was probably 

 premature, the first that were expelled were between 

 four and five inches long. The size of the young is, 

 however, much regulated by that of the parent fish. 

 Dr. Parnell, in the month of March, had a speci- 

 men sent him which measured six inches in length, 

 from which he took fifty-six young all alive, although 

 the parent fish had been dead nearly two days. 

 Each was one inch and a quarter in length, and on 

 being put into a glass of fresh water, appeared for a 

 time remarkably lively, but in less than half an 

 hour they all died. And, once more, in a female 

 which Mr. Yarrell obtained, on the Kentish coast, 

 full of young, these, when excluded, were only an 

 inch and a half long ; but such was the perfection of 

 the internal organization of the female, that after 

 the specimen had been kept for months in diluted 

 spirit- of- wine, on making slight pressure on the ab- 

 domen, the young were extruded one after another, 

 and invariably with the head first. The arrange- 

 ment of the perfectly-formed young in the foetal sac 

 of the gravid female, was very remarkable. It is in 

 summer they first sec the light, each issuing from 



