286 GOBY HUNTING. 



lack-lustre eyes rolling to and fro, or gazing stupidly 

 upwards, just as I have sketched him.* 



The Goby is the liveliest. He, too, is fitful and 

 sudden in his movements. He will frequently rest 

 his chin on a stone, and stare at you, as if his life 

 depended on his making you out, alternately elevating 

 and depressing his pretty dorsal. The ventral fins 

 are very curiously united into a kind of funnel or 

 cup ; and this is evidently an organ of adhesion ; a 

 sort of sucker. Montagu suggests this use, but he 

 had never witnessed it. His words are, " With re- 

 spect to the union of the ventral fins, it would seem 

 to be for the purpose of forming an instrument of 

 adhesion ; but in no instance have we observed that 

 they adhered, either to rocks or to the bottom of the 

 glass vessel in which they have been kept alive for 

 several days/'f 



Probably this excellent naturalist failed to observe 

 it from not being able to keep the fish long enough 

 to wear off its first surprise and timidity, incident to its 

 unwonted situation and circumstances. But I have 

 seen the action repeatedly. The fish will frequently 

 swim up to the glass side of the tank, and suddenly 

 adhere in a perpendicular posture, remaining motion- 

 less for several minutes. During this time the curi- 

 ous formation of the ventrals may be well observed. 



* See the Frontispiece. The Gunnel is represented as approach- 

 ing in the centre ; the Tompot projects his head from beneath a 

 stone in the right corner; and the Black Goby is seen resting his 

 chin on a block on the left. 



f Montagu's MS., quoted in Yarrell. 



