CATALOGUE 



FISHES. 



Order I. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



(CONTINUED.) 



Fam. 19. GOBlIDiE. 



Gobioidei, pt., Cuv. Meffne Aniin. 

 Gobioidei, 3mL Bed. Abhamll. 1844, p. 201. 

 Gobiidae, Owen, Lect. Cotnp. Anat. i. p. 49. 



Body elongate, low, naked or scaly. Teeth generally small, some- 

 times with canines. The infraorbital ring does not articulate with 

 the praeoperculum. The two dorsal fins separated or more or less 

 united*, the spinous portion being always the less developed and com- 

 posed of flexible spines ; the anal similarly developed as the soft dorsal ; 

 ventrals with one spine and five raysf; sometimes both ventrals united 

 into a disk. Gill-opening more or less narroiv, the gill-membranes 

 being attached to the isthmus ; four giUs ; pseudobranchise. A pro- 

 minent papilla near the vent%. Air-bladder generally absent. Py- 

 loric appendages none. 



Carnivorous fishes, living at the bottom of the shores and of the 

 fresh waters of the temperate and tropical regions. This family 

 offers numerous instances of the fact, that a part of the indi\'iduals 

 of one and the same species are entii'ely confined to fresh waters, 

 whilst others live in the sea. 



* No spinous portion can be distinguished in Luciogohiiis, a genus but im- 

 perfectly known. 



t Four in Trypauchen, microcephalus and Trypmichenichthys. 

 \ No anal papilla in Asterropteryx. 



