THE GOBIES. 487 



diminishing its unsavoury smell, but, as I take it, from 

 some superstitious feeling of a somewhat similar kind to 

 that which prompts the Swedish sportsman (as men- 

 tioned in the " Field Sports of the North of Europe") to 

 decapitate the hare before bringing it into the house. 



Of the genus Gobius, eight species are identified by 

 Swedish ichthyologists as more or less common on the 

 coasts of Scandinavia, viz. : 



1. The Black Goby (Svart Smorbult, Sw. ; Sort Kut- 

 ling, Dan. ; G. niger, Linn.) is pretty abundant in the 

 North Sea and the Baltic, especially on rocky shores, 

 for on those that are sandy it seems not to thrive. On 

 the western coast it attains six inches in length, but on 

 the eastern, where the water is brackish, seldom more 

 than three inches. 



2. The Freckled or Spotted Goby (Hvitaktig Smorbult t 

 or, whitish goby, S\v. ; Held Kittling, Dan. ; G. minutus, 

 Gmel.) would also seem to be common in all the Scandi- 

 navian seas, but never grows so large in the Baltic as 

 on the west coast. The specific name, minutus, has been 

 given in reference to the size of this fish as compared 

 with the G. niger only, for, next to the latter, it is about 

 the largest of the genus, as recognized in the Peninsula. 



3. The Slender Goby (Spets - stjertad Smorbult, or, 

 sharp-tailed goby, S\v. ; G. yracilis, Jenyns) is very rare 

 in the Scandinavian seas. Only a single specimen, 

 indeed, seems hitherto to have been captured, and that 

 at Gullmars Fjord, in the Bohus Skargard. It is now 

 preserved in the Stockholm Museum. 



4. The Double-spotted Goby (Sju-strulig Smorbult, or, 

 seven-rayed goby, Sw. ; Topletted Kutling, Dan. ; G. Ruth- 

 ensparri, Euphras. ; G. bipunctatus, Yarr.). This species 

 is abundant in the Cattegat and North Sea, and high up 

 on the western coast of Norway. 



5. Gobius Nilsnonii, von Di'iben & Koren (Ten- 



