4. GOBIESOX. 503 



but compressed incisors, which are as short as the other teeth. 

 Brownish, with scattered dark spots ; a black blotch anteriorly on 

 the dorsal fin. 

 West Indies. 



a. Adult. West Indies. Museum Gxulding. 



6. Ten lines long. Island of Cordova. Presented by G. U. Skinner, 

 Esq. 



This species is so similar to O. cephalus that only the following 

 remarks appear to be necessary. The lateral profile of the head is 

 nearly semicircular ; the head is much depressed, as long as broad, 

 its length being- two- sevenths of the total. The width of the inter- 

 orbital space is somewhat less than one-haK the greatest width of 

 the head, or three times the diameter of the eye. The cleft of the 

 mouth extends beyond the anterior margin of the eye. The distance 

 of the origin of the dorsal from the caudal is more than one-haK of 

 its distance from the snout. 



There is some confusion in the synonymy of this species. It is 

 scarcely possible to make out which species was examined by 

 Linne and named Gyclopterus nvdus. Eloch and, after him, Miiller 

 and Troschcl refer it to the present species, whilst Brisout de Bar- 

 neville considers it identical with the Cycloptenis dentex of Pallas ; 

 hence the Berlin naturalists were wrong in introducing Chorisochis- 

 mus nudus, Barnev., into the synonymy of their CotijUs nudus. We, 

 of course, follow the eldest authority after Linnd — Bloch. Brisout de 

 Barneville, to whom the researches of Miiller and Troschcl were un- 

 known, fell into the error of confounding the Blochian species with 

 Gohiesox marmoratus, Jenyns, from Chile. The latter differs in. the 

 length of the incisors of the mandibula. 



The statement of MiiUer and Troschel that G. nudus is found in 

 the East Indies is founded on Bloch, who, however, is never to bo 

 trusted with regard to localities. There can be no doubt that the 

 specimens in the British Museum are specifically identical with that 

 in the Berlin Museum, and it is equally certain that the former were 

 collected in the West Indies. Thus the instances of the occurrence 

 of Gobiesocidce in the East Indies are reduced to the isolated species 

 of Cotylis Jimhriata. 



G. nudus does not appear to exceed a length of three inches. 



5. Gobiesox poecilophthalmus. 



Gobiesox pcecilophthahnos, Jenyns, Voy. Beagle, Fishes, p. 141. pi. 27. 



fig. 2. 

 Cotylis poecilophthalma. Mull. 8f Trosch, I. c. p. 19. 

 Tomicodon pcecilophthalmos, Barnev, I, c. p. 144. 



B. 6. D. 7. A. 7. 

 Anterior teetli in both jaws incisor-like ; smaller teeth behind the 

 incisors in the upper jaw. 



Galapagos Archipelago (Chatham Island). 



" General form same as that of G. marmoratus, including the pro- 



