288 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vo.. XII, 
Like most of its congeners G. acutipinnis is a bottom-feeder 
with limited powers of swimming. It habitually inhabits hori- 
zontal burrows, which it excavates in the soft mud full of organic 
debris. These tunnels, which are nearly straight, measure on an 
average 4 inches in length and half an inch in diameter and are 
provided with two orifices, one at each end, hidden under some 
aquatic plant. A pair inhabit a burrow. The two entrances ate 
a repetition of the usual device employed by shallow-water forms ; 
if danger threatens at one end, the fish escape by the other, causing 
a cloud of mud which effectually hides the animal and its burrow. 
G. acutipinnis breeds about February when the females contain 
ova. 
Gobius (Glossogobius) giuris,' H. B. 
(Pl. xxviii, fig. 31; pl. xxix, figs. 32—36). 
Tamil—Uluvay or Nallatanni uluvay. 
The term uluvay appears to have been derived from a Tamil 
word which means to plough, and is appropriate to a fish which 
is a bottom-feeder and a burrower. 
Habitat and Habits.—One of the most common and best known 
freshwater fish of Madras, occurring everywhere in ponds, ditches 
and rivers, in abundance. While the typical G. giuris is an ex- 
clusively freshwater form, the variety kokius is confined to back- 
waters and the sea. 
In habits G. gzwris closely resembles other gobies. It is vora- 
cious and lives for a considerable time out of water, dying with 
its opercles dilated. The colour of this fish is well adapted to its 
muddy surroundings. 
The breeding season extends from October to December in 
Madras, while it is said to be May to July in Ceylon.” The fish 
deposit their eggs as a rule in shallow water, in crevices and 
burrows, usually not of their own construction. The nests have 
been found under submerged rocks and tiles, in demersed pieces 
of iron piping, bamboo and cocoanut shells, and more frequently 
in the deserted burrows of such aquatic animals as crabs (Para- 
telphusa sp.). 
The eggs are very numerous and of a pale greenish-yellow 
colour and are attached in contiguous clusters (fig. 31) to the 
roof of the burrow. The egg-membrane is in the form of an 
elongated tube 3 to 6 mm. long and about + to 4 mm. in diameter 
and holds the egg at the slightly swollen diseal free end. It is 
attached at the other end by means of a short stalk to a shape- 
less basal stolon which adheres to the substratum (fig. 32). The 
parent remains on guard in the burrow and by the movements of 
its pectoral fins promotes the aération of the eggs. 
In the early stages of development the embryo faces the at- 
tached end, with its tail a oD ina Sea) behind (figs. 33 and 

1 Max W Gites Die Fische der — Dee p: 768 Ga. 
? Willey, Spo/. Zeylan., VII, pp. 102-103. 
