282 GOBY HUNTING. 



with a dark, purple hue, so that you can scarcely dis- 

 cern any inequality. In the middle of the face, on 

 each side, is a minute fringed process, and above each 

 eye a much more remarkable one, standing up con- 

 spicuously, and resembling, as I have said already, 

 a deer's horn. To be more particular, each appen- 

 dage of this pair is a thin piece of cartilaginous skin, 

 standing erect, and facing diagonally, both edges of 

 which are cut into a number of sharp points, just as 

 one might snip a piece of paper with fine scissors. 

 They are white, irregularly blotched with red. The 

 use of these fine ornaments I do not at all know ; 

 I have never seen the least motion in them, nor the 

 slightest attempt to use them made by the numerous 

 individuals that I have kept in my aquarium. The 

 pectorals are unusually ample, and very fleshy ; the 

 ventrals are thick, slender, two-rayed, and white, and 

 are set on just under the throat, where they form a 

 remarkable feature as the fish grovels about. There 

 is but a single dorsal, running along nearly the whole 

 length, but it is distinguished into two portions by 

 a difference in the height and structure of the fin- 

 rays. All the fins are fleshy, and indicate muscular 

 strength. 



As to colour, our Tompot is a beau. He wears a 

 suit of light grayish green, studded all over with 

 minute black specks, and the body is crossed by about 

 seven broad vertical bands of dark reddish brown, 

 extending to the edge of the dorsal. The cheeks are 

 marked in a somewhat mountebank fashion, with 



