BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 53 



Head and body chestnut brown or olive-green, the 

 latter with numerous indistinct darker angulated transverse 

 bars, which cease below the middle of the soft dorsal ; rest 

 of tail with 3 darker longitudinal ba'rs and some scattered 

 black spots. Head sometimes with one or two vertical 

 silvery streaks and a dusky cheek-spot. Dorsal fin brownish 

 olive, darkest anteriorly, the spinous portion with 3 or 4 

 oblique darker bars, the soft immaculate ; anal fin orange 

 brown, each ray with a basal, median, and terminal sky- 

 blue spot ; caudal orange ; pectoral greenish olive with 

 a large round dusky spot on its muscular base ; ventrals 

 sky-bJue. After immersion in formalin solution for some 

 time these fishes become uniform blackish brown. 

 {Anolius ; a genus of American lizards, the head of which 

 suggests a resemblance*). 



The " Crested Blenny " or " Oyster Blonny," as it 

 may with propriety be called, is a resident of the coasts 

 of New South Wales and Southern Queensland, and grows 

 to a length of 70 millim. 



The life history of this little creatiire, so far as it has 

 l)een determined, is both curious and interesting. Appar- 

 ently they mate at a very early age, since in no other way 

 can we account for their presence in places which it is 

 impossible for them either to enter or leave in their adult 

 state. Having paired, the young couple immediately 

 proceed to the choice of a residence ; this almost invariably 

 takes the form of a dead oyster-shell, between the valves 

 of which they are able at this stage easily to insert their 

 slim and delicate bodies. In the safe seclusion of this 

 retreat they live out their peaceful lives, undisturbed by 

 the strenuous and ceaseless war of Nature, which rages 

 ever around and above them. Here they are dependent 

 for food upon such small animals as may find their way 

 between the valves of their prison and such flotsam as the 

 tide may drift therein. Here too they breed, the female 

 attaching her eggs by means of some glutinous substance 

 to the upper wall of the shell, and it is remarkable that in 

 all the cases which have come under my notice the ova 

 were deposited not in a single mass but in scattered groups 

 of some half-dozen eggs each ; this arrangement may 



* " II releve sa petite tete comma ses petits sauriens nommes anolis 

 dans nos iles." (Cuvier & Valenciennes, loc. cit.). 



