264 ACANT110PTERYGII. 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. Yalenciennes 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 

 the dorsal fin. 



Gen. XLII. Zo ARCUS. 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 



