GOBIOID E. 



ACANTHOFTERYGII. COBIOWM. 



.^.^>m^ m. 



'X% 



THE SLENDER GOBY. 



Gobius gracilis. 



Gobius gracilis. Slender Goby, Jenyns, Man. Erit. Vert. p. 387. 



,, ,, ,, ,, V'arnell, Wern. Mem. vol. vii. p. 24.5. 



This Goby, though described from Mr. Jenyns"' work, was 

 not figured in the former volumes of the British Fishes. It 

 has probably been long confounded with Gobius minutus, but 

 is more slender, and otherwise distinguished. It was first 

 described by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns in his Manual of the 

 British Vertebrate Animals, from specimens obtained on the 

 coast of Essex. Dr. Parnell says, " This well-marked Goby 

 is occasionally found in the Firth of Forth, but is not com- 

 mon ; it inhabits the same situations as the mimitus, and they 

 arc frequently taken together. I have found it in the Sol way 

 Firth, and in much greater plenty on the southern coast of 

 England. It spawns in June, and is of little value except 

 as food for other fishes and aquatic birds." 



Mr. Jenyns' description is as follows : — 



" Length, three inches two lines. Form closely resembling 

 the minutus, but more elongated and slender throughout ; 

 greatest depth barely one-seventh of the whole length : snout 

 ratlier longer : opercle approaching more to triangular, the 



