GOBIO UEANOSCOPUS. 



131 



Gobio urano scopus (AGASSIZ). 



In this species (Fig. 59) the body is more elongated than in G. fluviatilis, 

 and the arch of the back is lower. The barbels are longer; the eyes are 

 placed obliquely, so as to be directed upward, more towards the forehead. 

 The dorsal and caudal fins are frequently free from spots, but sometimes 

 marked with one, two, or three series of blackish dots, running transversely. 

 The body of the fish is about six times as long as high; its thickness is more 

 than two-thirds of the height; the body is about four and a half times the 

 length of the head, or, taking in the total length of the caudal fin, the head 

 is just under one-fifth of the length. The head (Fig. 60) is more elongated than 



Fig. 59. GOBIO URANOSCOPUS. 



in G. Jluviatilis ; the eye is large, separated by its own diameter from 

 the opposite eye, and it is twice its diameter from the snout. The mouth 

 is similarly horizontal ; its cleft does not reach to the nares ; the barbels 

 attached at its angles reach back to the operculum. The tail is less com- 

 pressed from side to side than in the preceding species, so that it appears to 

 be relatively cylindrical. The dorsal fin is only slightly higher than long ; 

 it commences opposite to the ventral. All the other fins possess relatively 

 longer rays than those of Golio fluviatilis, the pectoral reaching as far as 

 or behind the beginning of the dorsal, the ventrals 

 reaching to the anal, while the terminal rays of the 

 more deeply-forked tail are as long as the head. 



According to Giinther, there are six and a half 

 scales above the lateral line, seven and a half below ; 

 but Von Siebold, Heckeland Kner, and other writers, fig. 60. 

 agree in reading five rows above the lateral line and 

 four below ; and there are differences in reading 

 the fin formula, the Continental writers giving nine rays in the dorsal and 

 'seven in the anal, while Giinther counts ten in the dorsal and eight in the anal. 



HEAD OF GOBIO 

 URANOSCOPUS, SEEN FROM 

 ABOVE. 



