78 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



lected it at Sanguisiapo, an islet off the southeast coast of Tawi- 

 tawi. It is known to occur from the Riu Kiu Islands, where it 

 was discovered, to the Fiji Islands. 



I have just received from San Juan, Siquijor Island, two 

 specimens, 94 and 62 millimeters long, respectively. The ocel- 

 lated rings on the sides and ten crossbands on the back were 

 of a very beautiful shade of violet-red; the pearly bluish white 

 bands on the sides of the head were bordered by red-violet. 

 In life this fish must be of extraordinary beauty. 



29. VALENCIENNEA STRIGATA (Broussonet) 



Gobius strigatus BROUSSONET, Ichthy. (1782) 1, Table 1. 



Eleotris strigata BLOCH and SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth. (1801) 65; Cu- 

 VIER and VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. 12 (1837) 189; GUNTHER, 

 Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. 3 (1861) 131; SLEEKER, Rev. Especes Eleo- 

 triformes, Versl. Akad, Amsterdam 11 (1877) 89; GUNTHER, Fische 

 der Siidsee 2 (1875) 190, pi. 3, fig. E. 



Valenciennca strigata JORDAN and SEALE, Bull. Bur. Fisheries 25 

 (1906) 383; EVERMANN and SEALE, Bull. Bur. Fisheries 26 (1907) 

 104. 



Dorsal VI, 1-18; anal I, 16 or 17; there are 105 scales in a 

 longitudinal series and 35 in a transverse series. 



The elongate, laterally compressed body wedge-shaped, its 

 depth 4.75 or 5 times and the pointed head 3 to 4 times in the 

 length; the eyes lateral, their diameter 4 to 4.5 times in head, 

 and equal to or 1.5 times in the convex blunt snout; the interor- 

 bital space equal to or f of an eye diameter ; the jaws equal, the 

 maxillary extending to or failing to reach anterior margin of 

 eye ; the teeth in a single row, with two to four unequal canines 

 in upper jaw and four to six backward-curving canines in the 

 lower jaw, the other teeth smaller and more or less inclined to 

 form two rows. The head and nape naked, with very small 

 scales on sides of nape ; the scales on trunk soon slightly ctenoid. 

 The dorsal subcontinuous, second and third spines of first dorsal 

 excessively elongated, with threadlike tips, fourth and fifth much 

 shorter; the second dorsal and anal similar in height and out- 

 line, obtusely rounded anteriorly, acutely angled behind, their 

 posterior rays reaching the obtusely rounded caudal when de- 

 pressed. 



In life the color greenish rose above, yellowish on sides and 

 pearly on belly, all fading to white in alcohol; a blue, dark- 

 edged band extends from angle of mouth to posterior margin 

 of opercle; there is a similar but smaller band on preoperculum 

 and another on suboperculum ; behind eye some circular spots 



