418 Survey of FisJdng- Grounds, West Coast of Ireland, 1890-1891. 



specimen taken by the " Fl5'ing- Falcon." According to Collett's experience only 

 the lower jaw exhibits an outer series of larger teeth, but we find such a series 

 present in both jaws, the teeth, moreover, being distinctly unciform in character 

 in the larger of the Irish examples. Of the alternative colourations we have 

 mentioned, the more brilliant appears to have been observed only by Fries, the 

 discoverer of the species. The specimen which he obtained was stale, and he 

 considered that it must have been more brilliantly coloured in life. No notes were 

 taken of the Irish examples at the time of capture, but the recollection of one of 

 us is sufficiently clear to enable us to affirm that the general colour was a dull 

 brown, the spots being darker. Collett's experience ajjpears to have been to the 

 same effect. 



To Dr. Scharff belongs the credit of first recognising the species as one 

 new to the British Fauna, but it was his misfortune to obtain only a single 

 half-grown example, which, from the very scanty information at that time 

 available, could not with certainty be referred to G. Friesii or to any other 

 form. It was accordingly described as a new species under the name of G. 

 macrolejns (Scharff, loc. cit.). 



While the Survey Collections were being sorted, the attention of one of us was 

 drawn by Dr. Scharff to the great resemblance which several gobies, trawled in 

 Killybegs Harbour and Cleggan Bay, bore to his type of G. macrolepis. The 

 resemblance between the last named and G. Friesii (Malm.) had been already noted 

 by the discoverer of the former, and he was kind enough to give us references to 

 the literature of the species. On examining our material it became apparent that 

 while all the Survey examples were certainly of the same species, the larger agreed 

 best with G. Friesii and the smaller with G. macrolepis. In order to decide the 

 question, all Irish specimens, including that taken by the "Flying Falcon," were, 

 with Dr. Scharff's consent, submitted to the examination of Herr Collett, who, 

 after comparing them with an undoubted example of G. Friesii, arrived at the 

 conclusion that they belonged to that species. It is therefore placed beyond 

 dispute that the differences between G. macrolepis and G. Friesii are merely 

 developmental, and not of specific importance. The type of G. macrolepis measures 

 only 7 '8 cm., and is of nearly the same size as the smallest Survey example of 

 G. Friesii, the specimen figured by us (PI. xli., fig. 3) is represented of the 

 natural size, i.e. 8'8 cm., and Collett speaks of an example of 10 cm. The develop- 

 mental changes which take place within such an interval of growth, as indicated 

 by the differences in the diagnosis of G. macrolepis and G. Friesii, and illustrated 

 by the Survey series, are chiefly as follows. — The eye becomes, as usual, relatively 

 smaller, and the head relatively shorter as the size increases. The eyes which, in 

 a specimen of 7'8 cm., are separated by an interval equal to one-fifth of their 

 diameter, become so closely apposed in specimens of about 9 cm. that there is 



