1. GOBIUS. 23 



As in all species that are very numerous in individuals {Eana 

 temporarki, Serranus scriba and cabriUa, &c.), so in the present, the 

 accidental and individual varieties are innumerable, and sometimes so 

 striking, that one is tempted to consider them as specific difierences. 

 In order to arrive at the tiiith, it is necessary to examine a great 

 number of specimens, when we soon discover that none of the 

 characters on which G. cehbicus, fasciato-jyimctatus, &c. have been 

 founded, hold good. The specimen, however, found by Kuhl and 

 van Hasselt in Java, which has been named by them G. luiicohr (not 

 Cuv. &, Val.), and which is still preserved in the Leyden Museum, 

 may well prove to be a distinct species. It has a shorter snout 

 than any of the thirty-seven specimens in the British Museum, the 

 scales on the neck are not much smaller than those on the sides, and 

 the colours appear to have been imiform. 



Skeleton. — AH the bones of the head are somewhat prolonged, in 

 accordance with the elongate external form of the fish. The crown 

 of the skidl is rather flat, slightly elevated along its mechau line, 

 which terminates in a low occipital crest. The lateral and anterior 

 margins of the crown (parietal and principal frontal bones) are pro- 

 vided with a double ridge, including a muciferous channel ; the outer 

 anterior angle of the crown is a point projecting into the orbit. The 

 orbit is on the upper surface of the head, and not closed by an infra- 

 orbital ring. The orbital portion of the frontals is very narrow. 

 The pra3frontal is well developed, and forms an anterior projecting 

 angle of the orbit ; only a part of the ethmoid is covered by the 

 frontal. The bones of the jaws are prolonged, but strong : the 

 mtermaxiUary has no dilated lamella posteriorly ; the maxillary is 

 styliform, slightly curved ; both bones have the sides by which they 

 touch each other so grooved, that they exactly fit on each other ; 

 the mouth not being much protractile, these bones cannot be re- 

 moved far from one another. The dentary bone of the lower jaw is 

 strong, similar to the furcula of a bird ; the articular bone is hori- 

 zontally dilated, extending only to a short distance beyond the point 

 of its union with the dentary ; the angular bone is very small. The 

 tympanic bones are narrow, large portions of the tympanic groove 

 being unossified : the hypotympanic is fonned by two portions, the 

 upper for the sutures with the pterygoid and mesotympanic, the 

 lower for the suture with the prseoperculum. There is a wide free 

 space between these two portions, posteriorly closed by the meso- 

 tympanic and prisoperculum ; the pretympanic is very narrow, and 

 considerably smaller than the mesotympanic. The glosso-hyal is 

 extremely broad, triangular, the point of the triangle being pos- 

 terior. _ The humeral arch is fixed to the skuU by the suprascapula, 

 which IS formed by two styliform processes, the lower of which is 

 extremely slender. There is a transverse groove formed by two 

 ridges near the point where these two processes meet ; it serves as 

 the passage for the muciferous channels of the head into that of the 

 lateral line. The humerus has a short process posteriorly for arti- 

 cidation with the pubic bone of its side ; radius very short. Each 



