264 ACANTIIOPTERYGII. FAMILY OF GOBIES. 



favourite resorts and habits correspond closely with 

 the Shanny, having a preference for those rocks 

 upon which sea-weeds most abound ; and under 

 which it will long remain when the tide is out. 

 When first captured, it is retained with difficulty, 

 owing to the slimy secretion with which it is enve- 

 loped. M. Valenciennes says its flesh is not bad ; 

 and in Greenland it is dried for food, along with 

 the Arctic Salmon : it is also much used for bait 

 for other fish. 



Low, in his Fauna Orcadensis, describes a second 

 species, the Purple, which is probably a mere 

 variety. The colour is reddish purple, the fins 

 lightest ; it is destitute of the spots on the back, 

 having only one placed near the commencement of 

 F the dorsal fin. 



Gen. XLII. Zoarcus. — This genus is particularly 

 distinguished from the rest of the family by having 

 no spiny rays at the anterior part of the dorsal and 

 anal fins ; but when these exist, it is towards the 

 back part of the dorsal, in a portion lower than the 

 rest of the fin, where the rays seem to have the ap- 

 pearance of having been worn down by friction, be- 

 ing preceded and followed by the more common 

 ones. This is the only ground upon which these 

 fish can be considered as possessed of an acanthop- 

 terygious character, and without it they would 

 have made a striking exception in the Order. All 

 their other characters present so striking a resem- 

 blance to the preceding genus, which is so markedly 

 acanthopterygian, that it would have been impossible 



