GOBIID>E 85 



but never have a scaly muscular base used for locomotion on 

 land. The body may be covered with large to minute scales, 

 20 to 200, ctenoid or cycloid, or may be partially or wholly naked ; 

 it may be more or less elongate, cylindrical, or laterally com- 

 pressed; the eyes are not stalked or unusually prominent. 



The teeth may be in one to many rows and may be fixed or 

 depressible, erect or horizontal, simple and pointed, caniniform, 

 or their tips enlarged, bilobed, or tricuspid, in either the upper 

 or the lower jaw or in both jaws. The lips may have a band 

 of movable teeth, but the palatines and vomer are without them 

 except in a Samoan genus, which has three vomerine teeth. 



The character of the teeth is a good one for the limitation 

 of genera, but has been relied upon too much by Bleeker, since 

 many descriptions merely state "wide band of teeth" or "bands 

 of fine teeth," or similar, indefinite statements. The proper 

 observation of the teeth is a very difficult matter in many species, 

 and in the case of the smaller gobies involves the constant use 

 of the compound microscope. The characters given by Bleeker 

 in his Esquisse are often untenable, as he never saw the types 

 and merely compiled his definitions ; yet some of the genera thus 

 created are valid, but must stand on other characters than those 

 given by him. 



The Gobiicte are abundant in and about coral reefs, rivers, 

 lakes, and mountain streams. A number of the small or minute 

 kinds living in lakes or brooks are exclusively fresh-water fishes ; 

 but the vast majority, including all those of much economic 

 importance, spawn in the sea, and the young ascend rivers and 

 dive in streams until mature. Indirect evidence is conclusive 

 that those which survive the perilous journey to the sea return 

 to their fresh-water haunts and continue to make the trip each 

 way every year as long as they live. 



Most of the true gobies are dull or plain-colored little fishes, 

 their colors harmonizing so well with their surroundings that 

 they are nearly invisible when at rest. Like many other fishes, 

 many of them can change their markings or colors to suit the 

 amount of light or to match changes in their environment. Some 

 of them, however, are very beautifully colored and a few, es- 

 pecially of the coral-reef dwellers, are brilliantly colored. The 

 males of some of the catadromous species are also very hand- 

 some, at least during the breeding season, when their colors vie 

 in beauty and delicacy with those of the typical coral-reef fishes. 

 Practically all of them are bottom dwellers, at home on sand, 



