268 



.SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



these i/oiuuifa are caught in a fine-meshed kind of 

 puree-net {Taiiaue ov Tartaneum), Avliicli is sunk to a 

 depth of between 1.5 and 18 fathoms. In this manner, 

 according to G. <>. Saks, ];irge (|uantities of this fish 

 are taken both in tlie Adriatic and oft" the coast of 

 Sicily. 



The White Goby spawns in sunnner. Collett 

 iound th;it the males change their teeth during May; 

 ;ind in June the females were full of roe. At tlie be- 

 ginning of rTuly, most of the males had emptied their 

 milt-sacs; and after that date he did not see a single 

 .specimen until he met with the fry in the autumn. 



The White Goby is common in the Mediterranean 

 and the Black Sea. Off the south part of the west 

 coast of Europe it has not yet been observed, but it 

 has been found in Scotland and jilong the Norwegian 

 coa.st up to the neiglibourhood of Bergen. Its Scandi- 

 navian haunts were first discovered by the eminent 



Norwegian naturalist Stuvitz, who took four specimens 

 oft" Bergen, in December, 1834. The species of these 

 examples, however, was not determined until ten years 

 afterwards, by v. Diben and Koren. In Sweden it 

 was first found in (jtullinar Fjord, in July, 1858, by 

 G. M. Retziis. In 1859 it was taken oft' Skiireberg 

 in Gullmar Fjord by S. Loven, and in the same year 

 In' LiLL.iERouG. Since that time it has again been 

 found in the same neighbourhood by A. W. Malm, 

 and at Stromstad it has lieen taken in Salmon-traps 

 by C. A. Hansson, in June, 1880, and May, 1887. 



The food of the Wliite Goby is composed of small 

 ci'usta-ceans and their young and larva;, as well a« those 

 of shellfisli. It serves in its turn as food for other 

 fishes, and in this capacit}^ is of special importance to 

 the small Oadid/p and the young of the larger ones. 

 Collett found the stomach of these fishes in several 

 instances crammed with White Gobies. 



Genus CRYSTALLOGOBIUS". 



Bodi/ elongated, laterally compressed and scaleless. Teeth simple, fixed, and set in a single roir, present anlij in the 

 front part of the lo/rer jaw and the intermaxillary hones; in the female extremely small, in the male more pro- 

 minent and interspersed n'ith canines in tlie lower jan\ Two rays in the first dorsal fin. Funnel formed hy the 

 ventral fins irith the outer (anterior) rays branched, open posteriorly, and uith each of the two innermost rays 

 united hy a membrane to the belly. Gape relatively large, the length of the lower jatv being more than \ ., that 

 of the head. Liill-openings large, obliquely Jiorizontal, extending forward to the point of the isthmus. 



Branch iostegal rays 5. 



This northern genus may be regarded as almost I tinuous vertical fins and tlie more ]ol)ate pectoi-al fins, 

 peculiar to the Scandinavian fauna. In the system it \ and, like the males of Crystallogobius, are often fur- 



forms a link between the preceding genera and the 

 Amblyopiformes, which are distinguished l)y the con- 



nished witli well-developed, canine teeth. 



The only known species of tlie genus is 



" GiLi,, Proc. AcacL Nat. Sc. PhilaiL 1863, p. 269. 



