GOBIUS.] PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. 387 



torals, contained six times and a half in the entire length : thickness the 

 same as the depth : head depressed ; snout short ; lower jaw projecting 

 heyond the upper : eyes full and prominent, closely approximating on the 

 upper part of the head, the space between reduced to a shallow groove, 

 less than one-fourth of their diameter: opercle large, of an irregular 

 square form, with the lower angle rounded off; the ascending margin 

 nearly vertical ; reaching nearly to the base of the rays of the pectorals : 

 scales small : first dorsal with the first four rays nearly equal ; fifth and 

 sixth decreasing; all inclining backwards: space between the dorsals 

 equalling half the depth of the body : second dorsal with the first ray 

 a little shorter than the second; second, third, and fourth, equal and 

 longest ; the succeeding rays gradually decreasing to the last, which is 

 scarcely more than half the length of the third and fourth : anal answer- 

 ing to 'the second dorsal, commencing and terminating nearly in the 

 same line ; the rays, however, with the exception of the first, which is 

 much shorter than the others, more nearly of a height : caudal nearly 

 even. 



B. 5; D. 611; A. 12; C. 13, and 2 short; P. 20; V. 12. 



(Colours.) Yellowish white, and somewhat pellucid; the back and sides 

 obscurely spotted and mottled with ferruginous; three or four of these 

 spots, larger than the others, are placed at intervals on the lateral line ; 

 that which is most distinct being just at the base of the caudal: rays 

 of the caudal and dorsal fins spotted with the same colour, giving the 

 appearance of transverse bars when the fins are close ; anal and ventrals 

 plain : opercle with silvery reflections. 



Common on many parts of the coast where it is sandy, and often taken 

 in the shrimp-nets. Is probably, however, frequently confounded with 

 the next species. Pennant considers it as the Aphua Cobites of Wil- 

 lughby, but as this last is represented as having seventeen rays in the 

 second dorsal, this opinion is probably incorrect. 



64. G. gracilis, Jenyns. (Slender Goby.) Dorsals 

 remote ; the second with the posterior rays longest : eyes 

 closely approximating. 



G. gracilis, Jen. Cat. of Brit. Vert. An. 25. sp. 63. Slender Goby, 

 Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 260. 



LENGTH. Three inches two lines. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Closely resembling the last species, but more 

 elongated and slender throughout: greatest depth barely one-seventh 

 of the whole length: snout rather longer: opercle approaching more 

 to triangular, the lower angle being more cut away, and the ascending 

 margin more oblique ; a larger space between it and the pectorals : the 

 two dorsals further asunder: rays of the second dorsal longer; these 

 rays also gradually increasing in length, instead of decreasing, the pos- 

 terior ones being the longest in the fin, and rather more than equalling 

 the whole depth : rays of the anal in like manner longer than in the 

 G. minutus : 



D. 612 ; A. 12 ; C. 13, and 2 short ; P. 21 ; V. 12 : 



in all other respects similar. (Colours.) Also resembling those of the 

 last, with the exception of the anal and ventral fins, which are dusky, 

 approaching to black in some places, instead of plain white, as in the 

 G. minutus. 



B B 2 



