160 FISHES OF SAN DIEGO—EIGENMANN. 
iting the crab holes under rocks at Point Loma. Ithas been found no- 
where else about San Diego, but has been taken at Ensenada. Its hab- 
itat is, as far as known, quite limited. In its pink color and general 
appearance it much resembles the blind fishes inhabiting the caves of 
southern Indiana. Its peculiarities are doubtless due toits habits. The 
entire bay region is inhabited by a carideoid crustacean which bur- 
rows in the mud. It, like the blind fish, is pink in color. Its holes in 
the bay are frequented by Clevelandia, etc., while at the base of Point 
Loma, where the waves sometimes dash with great force, the blind fish 
is its associate. 
On rough days few fish are seen, though ever so many stones are 
overturned, a task rendered somewhat laborious and bad for the fingers 
by the numerous worn tubes, ete., attached to the rocks. On mild days, 
on the contrary, with very low tides, quantities are found, and almost 
invariably in company with one of the crustaceans mentioned above. 
Sometimes the fishes live quite out of water on the damp gravel and 
sand under a rock, but more frequently small pools of water fill all the 
depressions under the rocks, and the fishes swim rapidly away in their 
attempt to hide in the crab holes, several of which always branch from 
the cavity in which the rock has lain. 
In the bay the gobies habitually live out of the holes, into which they 
descend only when they are frightened, while at Point Loma this species 
never leaves its subterranean abode, and to this fact we must attribute 
its present condition. 
How long these fishes have lived after their present fashion it would 
be hard to conjecture. The period which would produce such decided 
structural changes can not be a brief one. The scales have entirely dis- 
appeared, the color has been reduced, the spinous dorsal has been 
greatly reduced; not only have the eyes become stunted, but the whole 
frontal region of the skull, and the optic nerves have been profoundly 
changed. 
The skin, and especially that of the head, has become highly sensi- 
tized. The skin of the snout is variously folded and puckered, and well 
supplied with nerves; the nares are situated at the end of a fleshy pro- 
tuberance which projects well forward, just over the mouth. At the 
chin are various short tentacles and a row of papillee, which very prob- 
ably bear sensory hairs similar to those represented in Figs. 15 and 16 
(plate vit), extends along each ramus of the lower jaw, and along the 
margin of the lower limb of the preopercle. The eye is, however, 
the part most seriously affected. In the young, Fig. 7, it is quite 
evident, and is apparently functional. Objects thrust in front of them 
are always perceived, but the field of vision is quite limited. With 
age the skin over the eyes thickens, and the eyes are scarcely evident 
externally. As far as I could determine they do not see at this time, 
and certainly detect their food chiefly, if not altogether, by the sense of 
touch. <A hungry individual will swim over meats, fish or a mussel, 
