THE GOBY FAMILY. 183 



that of a very long oval, pointed at the tail end. The upper 

 part of the snout is produced backwards into a long hook- 

 shaped flap, known as the "rostral hook." 



In colour, the upper side of this fish is a pale yellowish- 

 brown, with numerous round spots of a creamy tint. 



Though there is no reason to doubt that this species 

 is fairly common along our open sandy sea-beaches (whereon 

 it loves to dwell), it is seldom captured. 



It grows to a length of nearly 13 inches. 



Amongst other species of our Fiat-Fishes might be 



mentioned the Long - snouted Flounder (Ammotretis 



ro strata), the Narrow-banded Sole (Solea macleayana) , 



the Crested Flounder (Lophonectes galhis) and the 



Peacock Sole (Achirns pavoninus). 



THE GOBY FAMILY. 



(Family: Gobiidtf.) 



THIS is quite an enormous family of fishes, embracing as it 

 does about 600 different species. They are chiefly of small 

 size, including amongst their number, the tiniest fish (and 

 at the same time the smallest vertebrated animal) that 

 exists. This little Goby is a native of Luzon, in the Philip- 

 pine Islands, where it is used as food, and where it attains 

 the wonderful size of just about half an inch. However all 

 the Gobies are not small, as there is a species of Bleotris in 

 the rivers of Siam, Borneo and Sumatra, which grows to 

 the majestic size for a Goby of nearly 3 feet. 



Gobies are distributed over all the oceans of the world, 

 with the exception of those lying within the cold regions 

 of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. Those which are 

 marine, are usually found upon rocky coasts; even, in some 

 instances, in water which is subject to constant and violent 

 agitations. To enable them to withstand this agitation of 

 the water, as well as the action of sea-currents local or 

 otherwise many of these fishes have the two ventral fins 



