2188 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



_':> 14. CALLIOXYMUS PAUCIRADIATUS, Gill. 



"D. Ill, 6; A. 4. The preopercular spine is armed with three teeth 

 above and terminates in an acute point." (Gill.) Matanzas, Cuba; an 

 imperfectly described species, known only from the above note, (pauci, 

 few; radiatus, rayed.) 



Callionymus pauciradiatus, GILL, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., vni, 1865, 143, Matanzas, 

 Cuba. 



Family CLXXXVIII. GOBIHXE. 

 (THE GOBIES.) 



Body oblong or elongate, naked or covered with ctenoid or cycloid 

 scales. Dentition various, the teeth generally small ; premaxillaries pro- 

 tractile; suborbital without bony stay. Skin of head continuous with 

 covering of eyes. Opercle unarmed; preopercle unarmed or with a short 

 spine ; pseudobranchite present. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth ; gill 

 membranes united to the isthmus, the gill openings thus restricted to the 

 sides. No lateral line. Dorsal fins separate or connected, the spinous 

 dorsal least developed, of 2 to 8 flexible spines, rarely wanting ; anal usu- 

 ally with a single weak spine, similar to the soft dorsal ; ventral fins close 

 together, separate or fully united, each composed of a short spine and 5 

 (rarely 4) soft rays, the inner rays longest; the ventral fins, when united, 

 form a sucking disk, a cross fold of skin at their base completing the cup ; 

 caudal fin convex ; anal papilla prominent. No pyloric caeca; usually no 

 air bladder. Carnivorous fishes, mostly of small size, living on the bot- 

 toms near the shores in warm regions. Some inhabit fresh waters, and 

 others live indiscriminately in either fresh or salt water. Many of them 

 bury in the mud of estuaries. Few of them are large enough to be of 

 much value as food. Genera about 80; species nearly 600. The species 

 are for the most part easily recognized, but their arrangement in genera 

 is a matter of extreme difficulty. Until the multitude of Asiatic forms 

 are critically studied, any definition of the American genera must be ten- 

 tative only. (Gobiidcp,, part; groups Gobiina, Amblyopina, and Trypauche- 

 nina, Gunther, Cat. Fishes, in, 1-138.) 



ANALYSIS OF GENERA OF NORTH AMERICAN GOBIID^:. 

 a. Ventral fins separate; body scaly. 



OXYMETOPONTIN^E : 



b. Ventral rays I, 4. 



c. Forehead bluntly rounded, without sharp keel: tongue very slender, sharp; 

 body elongate, compressed, covered with very small scales ; head short, 

 compressed, rather broad above ; mouth oblique, the lower jaw projecting ; 

 teeth in few series, some of them canine-like ; isthmus narrow. Dorsals 

 separate, the first of 6 slender spines; soft dorsal and anal elongate; 

 caudal lanceolate. IOGLOSSUS, 800. 



ELEOTRIDIN^E: 

 bb. Ventral rays I, 5. 



d. Vomer with a broad patch of villiform teeth; gill openings extending for- 

 ward to below posterior angle of mouth, the isthmus thus very narrow ; 



