72 INTRODUCTION. 



consisting of many hundred ova, which are of the 

 size of ordinary shot, and of a whitish or amber 

 colour, according to their degree of maturity. The 

 further advanced are marked by two black round 

 spots, which are discovered by the miscroscope to 

 be the eyes of the embryo. Masses of eggs, in 

 different stages of their evolution, are met with in 

 the same nest. It would appear that the fish must 

 first deposit its spawn amid the growing fucus, and 

 afterwards gather its branches together round the 

 eggs, at the same time weaving and incorporating 

 all the rubbish that is lying or floating round the 

 nucleus.* (Proc. Berw. Club, i. 200). Concern- 

 ing the River bull-head, Coitus gobio^ belonging 

 to the same family, the authority of Linnaeus, Fa^ 

 bricius, and Pennant may be quoted, to the extent, 

 that it lies almost always at the bottom, deposits 

 its spawn in a hollow it forms in the gravel, quits it 

 with reluctance, and defends its young (Cuv. & 

 Val., iv. J10; Brit. ZooL, iii. 291): a habit, this, 

 which has been noticed in one member of the genus 

 Gobius in other seas. These Gobies are abundant 

 in the Mediterranean, frequenting shallow and quiet 

 inlets among sea- weeds; and Olivi positively afiirms, 

 that one of them, the black goby (G. niger, Linn.), 

 excavates burrows in the mud or clay at the bottom, 

 where it passes the winter. In spring they con- 



* Through Dr. Johnston's kindness, who transmitted us a 

 Nest, we are able to supply a representation of this fish's nest, 

 (See Plate VI.) ; the first, we believe, which has any where 

 been published. 



