ACANTIIOPTERYGIANS. 155 



Gobies, they can live out of water for a still longer period ; and in the 

 Moluccas, their native country, they are seen creeping and leaping over 

 the mud, either to escape from their enemies, or to seize upon the small 

 Shrimps, which constitute their chief food. 



Some of them liave the concave disc-like ventrals of the true Gobies*. 



Tlie ventrals of others are divided nearly to the base-i". 



I would also separate, as well as with Gronovius give the name of, 



Eleotris, Gronov. 



To" those Fishes, which, like the Gobies, have flexible spines in the first 

 dorsal and the post-anal appendage, but whose ventrals are entirely dis- 

 tinct, the head obtuse and slightly depressed, the eyes at a distance from 

 each other, and which have six rays in the branchial membrane. Their 

 lateral line is but slightly marked, and their viscera are similar to those 

 of the Gobies. Most of them inhabit fresh water, and frequently live in 

 the mud. 



E. dormitatrix, Cuv. ; PlaUjcephalus dormitator , Bl., Schn. (The 

 Sleeper). Tolerably large, with a depressed head, inflated cheeks, 

 and fins spotted with black. From the marshes of the Antilles J. 

 They are also found in Senegal §, and in India ||. 

 A small species is taken on the coast of the Mediterranean, Gohius 

 auratus, Riss., of a golden colour, with a black spot on the base of 

 the pectoral^. 



* Gohius Schlosseri, Pall., Spic. VIII, pi. 1, f. 1 — 4, to which must be added the 

 Glib, strialus, Schn., xvi, left among the Gobies, though it is hard to say why, since 

 it is a true Periophtalmus. 



t Gubius Kcelreuteri, Pall., Spic. VIII, pi. 11, f. 13;— Per. ruber, ^c\m.;— Per. pa- 

 pilio, Schn., pi. xxv. 



N. B. Both the Gobies and the Periophlalmi with divided ventrals, according to the 

 system of M. de Lacepede, would be Gobiomores ; if, together with this division of 

 the ventrals, they had but one dorsal, they would be Gobicmnioides, but the species 

 arranged under these two genera have not all their characters. The Gob. Gruiiovii, 

 Gm., Marcgr. 153, does not belong to this family, it is our genus Nomeus of the 

 family of the Scomberij'idcs. The Gobiovioroide pison. Gob. pisonis, Gm., Amore pi.xu- 

 ma, Marcgr. 16G; Eleotris, 1, Gron., Mus. 16, has not the character of this genus; 

 for it has two dorsals both in the fig. of Marcgr., and in the description of Gronovius; 

 by its ventrals it is an Eleotris. 



Bloch, Ed. Schn., p. 65, separates from the Gobies, and makes the genus Eleotris 

 different from that of Gronovius, which bears the same name, of those species whose 

 ▼entrals are merely united like a fan without being infundibuliform; but, in those 

 which I have examined, the membrane which unites the external edges in front is 

 merely somewhat shorter in proportion, which has prevented it from being observed, 

 and for this reason I leave them among the Gobies. 



X It is the Gobiomore dormeur, Lacep. Add, the Gumriva, Parr., pi. xxxix, f. 1 ; 

 — the Amore gtiaqu, Marcgr. C6; — the Amore pixiima. Id. lb., or Cob. pisonis, Gm. 



§ I infer this from a note attached to a dried skin presented to the Museum by 

 Adanson, and which is specifically different from the preceding ones. 



II The Gob. strigatus, Brouss. Dec., pi. 1, or Gobiomore tuiboa, Lacep. cop. Ency. 

 Method., f. 138; — the Eleotris noir, Quoy and G., op. cit., pi. Ix, f. 2, and the Sciana 

 marrulepidjla, Bl. 298, and maculatn, Id. 299, 2, which constituted my former genus 

 Prochiliis, which must be suppressed. 



^f It is an Eleotris, and not a Goby. 



