ACANTHOPTERYGIANf?. 153 



Blennies, they can live for some time out of water, their stomach has no 

 cul-de-sac, and the intestinal canal is not furnislied with ca;ca; finally, 

 the males have the same little appendage behind the anus, and some spe- 

 cies are known to be viviparous. They are small or moderate sized 

 fishes, which live among the rocks near the shore. Most of them have a 

 simple natatory bladder. 



GoBius, Lacep. and Sehn. 



In the true Gobies the ventrals are united throughout their whole 

 length, and even before their base by a traverse, so that they form a con- 

 cave disk. The body is elongated; head moderate and rounded; cheeks 

 inflated and the eyes approximated; two dorsal fins, the last of which is 

 long. Several species inhabit the seas of Europe, whose characters are 

 not yet sufficiently ascertained*. 



They prefer a clayey bottom, where they pass the winter in canals 

 which they excavate. In the spring they prepare a nest in some spot 

 abounding with fucus, which they afterwards cover with roots of the Zos- 

 tera; here the male remains shut up, and awaits the females, who suc- 

 cessively arrive to deposit their eggs; he fecundates them, and exhibits 

 much care and courage in defending and preserving themf. 



G. niger, L. ; Penn. Brit. Zool. pi. 38. (The Black or Common 

 Goby). Body blackish-brown ; dorsals bordered with v»-hitish ; the 

 most common species on the coast of Europe. The extremities of 

 the superior rays of the pectorals are free ; lengih four or five inches, 

 G.jozzo, Bl. 107. f. 3. (The Blue Goby). Brown, marbled 

 with blackish; blackish fins; two white lines on the first dorsal, 

 whose rays are prolonged in filaments above the membrane. 



G. minutus, L. ; Jphia, Penn., pi. 37. (The White Goby). 

 Body a pale fawn colour; fins whitish, transversely marked with 

 fawn-coloured lines; length, from two to three inches. 



The Mediterranean, which is perhaps inhabited by these three species, 

 produces several others of different sizes and colours J. 



G. capita, Cuv. ; Gesner, 396. (The Great Goby). Olive, 

 marbled with blackish; lines of blackish points on the fins; the 

 head broad and the cheeks inflated; length one foot and more. 



G. cruentatus, Gmel. (The Bloody Goby). Tolerably large; 

 brown, marbled with grey and red; lips and operculum marbled with 



* Belon and Rondelet have endeavoured to prove that this fish is the Gubius of 

 the aiitients, and Artedi pretends to have found in tlie ocean tl;e badly determined 

 Mediterranean species of those autliors. Hence has arisen a most inextricable con- 

 fusion, to disentangle which it is necessary to recommence both descriptions and 

 figures, a task we shall partially undertake in our Icthyology. 



■ f These observations were made by the late Olivi, on a Goby of the canals of Ve- 

 nice, which he considers identical with the nigcr, but which is perhaps anotlier of tlie 

 numerous Mediterranean species; they are given by M. de Martens in the second 

 volume of his Voy. to Venice, p. 419. My conclusion is, that the Ooby is the Flnjcis 

 of the antients, " the on/;/ fisli that coiislructs a ursl." Arist Hist., lib. VIII, cap. xxx. 



X See the descriptions, but without wholly adopting the nomenclature, of Risso, 

 Icth. de Nice; p. 155, et seq. 



