GOBIOIDEA 19 



close the top properly after taking out bagoong. The odor at- 

 tracts flesh flies which deposit eggs or maggots about the top, 

 and the maggots soon make an entrance through even very small 

 crevices. Bagoong is accordingly, in some hands, a nauseous, 

 wormy, semiputrid mass, unfit for human consumption. There 

 is no excuse for such conditions ; a little supervision by the local 

 health authorities and education of the ignorant would soon erad- 

 icate such evils. 



The importance of the ipon fisheries may be gauged by the 

 fact that about half a million pesos worth of bagoong is pro- 

 duced annually in northern Luzon. 



Gobies are exceedingly numerous in the tropical and temper- 

 ate zones, both in species and, in individuals. In temperate 

 regions they are not of economic importance and, so far as I am 

 aware, there are no vast runs of young up the rivers of coun- 

 tries with cool climates. Dr. B. W. Evermann informs me that 

 the run of young gobies is very noticeable in the streams of 

 Porto Rico, and they seem to occur more or less markedly 

 throughout the Tropics. 



A few kinds of gobies attain a length of from 30 to 60 centi- 

 meters and are rather bulky for their length ; but most of them 

 are slender little fellows with a maximum length of about 10 

 centimeters, while many species never exceed 2.5 centimeters 

 when adult. One species found only in Lake Buhi, in southeast- 

 ern Luzon, is but 12.5 millimeters long when mature; another, 

 from the vicinity of Manila, is mature when 7.5 to 9.5 millimeters 

 long and is the smallest known fish. The Philippine gobies thus 

 include the smallest living vertebrates. 



GOBIOIDEA 



The chief characteristics of the order Gobioidea are the fol- 

 lowing : 



The ventral fins are always present, thoracic in position, each 

 having one spine and five, rarely four, soft rays. The ventrals 

 are very close together, the inner rays the longer, and in by far 

 the greater number the two fins are completely joined to form 

 a single fin, which may vary from very short and rounded to 

 rather elongate; but, whether separated or fused into a func- 

 tional unit, the ventrals are used as a sucking disk, or organ, for 

 clinging to rocks or other objects. The spinous dorsal is nearly 

 always present, short, and is made up of feeble spines, or is 

 much less developed than the soft dorsal. There is no lateral 

 line, the gill openings are confined to the sides, and there is an 



