386 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
pyloric coeca. Body naked or covered with ctenoid or cycloid 
scales. No lateral line. Dorsals separate or connected, spinous 
fin short, of II to VIII flexible spines, or sometimes wanting. 
Anal usually with a single weak spine, fin similar to soft dorsal. 
Caudal convex. Ventrals close together, separate or united, each 
composed of a short spine and 3 or 4 soft rays, inner rays usually 
longest. Ventrals when united form a sucking-disk, a cross fold 
of skin at their base completing the cup. | 
Carnivorous fishes, mostly of small size, living on the bottom 
near the shore in warm regions. Some live in fresh water and 
others live indiscriminately in either fresh or salt water. Many 
are found buried in the mud of estuaries. Few are large enough 
to be of much value as food. One species on our coast. 
Genus Gosrosoma Girard. 
The Naked Gobies. 
Gobiosoma bosci (Lacépéde). 
Goby. Variegated Goby. 
Ventrals united, forming a disk free from belly, teeth simple, 
body and head entirely naked, usually VII dorsal spines, and no 
barbels. 
I have no examples of this fish, which frequents the shallow 
grassy bays and inlets along our coast. 
Gobiosoma bosci Bean, Bull. U. S. F. Com., VII, 1887, p. 136. 
—Moore, Bull. U. S. F. Com., XII, 1892, p. 363. 
Gobius alepidotus Baird, 9th An. Rep. Smiths. Inst., 1854, p. 
339- 
Gobiosoma alepidotum Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 817. 
Sub-Order DISCOCEPHALI. 
The Remoras. 
A remarkable group consisting of a single family. 
