20 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



anal papilla. The papilla varies greatly in size and shape; in 

 many species it is long, slender, and pointed in the males, and 

 short, thick, and cylindrical or subglobose in the females. In 

 other species it is alike in both sexes. The preopercle is with- 

 out a bony stay; there are four gills. The gill membranes are 

 attached to the isthmus, the gill openings thus restricted to the 

 sides and sometimes very narrow. Pseudobranchise are present, 

 sometimes only in a rudimentary condition. Usually both air 

 bladder and pyloric caecse are wanting. 



In the preparation of this monograph, I have carried on field 

 studies in practically every part of the Philippines, kept con- 

 siderable numbers of living specimens for several years in some 

 cases, and have examined thousands of individuals of each of 

 the species of economic importance. In addition, I have ex- 

 amined the entire collection of gobies at Leland Stanford Junior 

 University and in the United States National Museum. 



Bleeker's Esquisse d'un systeme naturel des Gobioides and 

 Revision des especes insulindiennes de la sousfamille des Eleo- 

 triformes are invaluable to any student of the gobies, and espe- 

 cially of the Indo-Pacific forms. While investigating gobies in 

 the United States I was under great obligations to my teacher 

 and friend, David Starr Jordan, to J. 0. Snyder, of Stanford 

 University, and to Barton A. Bean, of the United States National 

 Museum. 



Jordan's arrangement has been followed, according to which 

 six families and sixty-six genera of the gobioid fishes are known 

 to occur in the Philippines. 



I have included in this monograph descriptions of most of the 

 gobies known to occur along the coasts of the China Sea and, 

 when not represented by Philippine material, have described 

 them as far as possible from material sent me by S. F. Light, 

 formerly of Amoy University, Amoy, China. I believe that most 

 of these species will ultimately be found to occur in Philippine 

 waters, when the Batan and Babuyan Islands, the northern and 

 northwestern coast of Luzon, and the west coasts of Palawan and 

 Balabac have been explored. I believe that at least two hundred 

 species of gobioid fishes will be found eventually in the Philip- 

 pines. I have excluded those gobies known as yet only from the 

 maritime waters of Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas, though 

 I fully believe all of them will eventually be collected in Philip- 

 pine waters. Such islands as Cagayan Sulu, Sibutu, and the 

 maze of reefs and islets about Sitankai are physically a part 

 of Borneo, while the Sarangani Islands and the southern and 



