108 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



length; the snout obtuse, convex; the eyes very close together, 

 their diameter 3 to 4 times in length of head ; the mouth oblique, 

 jaws equal, posterior angle of maxillary before eye ; the outer row 

 of teeth in each jaw enlarged ; in the young there are canine teeth 

 in both jaws, in the adults there is a pair of lateral canines in 

 the lower jaw; the supraopercular groove conspicuous; the pre- 

 opercles, upper part of opercles, and crown of head scaled ; the 

 dorsals very close together, first dorsal lower than second, which 

 equals or is lower than depth of body; the pectoral obtusely 

 rounded, 4.25 to 4.33 times in length ; the caudal obtuse, convex, 

 about 5 times in length of body ; the ventrals reach anus, 4.75 to 

 5 times in length ; the anal scarcely lower than second dorsal. 



The color green or olive, clouded with darker and dotted with 

 brown and bluish ; a violet-blue vertical band passes through eye 

 and down behind angle of mouth ; the snout and opercles covered 

 with yellow or blue dots ; in the young there are seven or eight 

 brown longitudinal bands, and a series of five circular brown 

 spots behind pectoral; the first dorsal has blackish spots ante- 

 riorly, yellow spots posteriorly; the second dorsal is brown 

 spotted; the pectoral and ventral fins reticulated with brownish 

 violet and minutely dotted with bluish, or may be yellow, dotted 

 with brown; the caudal has many brownish and blue dots, its 

 lower margin violet; the anal has a broad black margin. 



The above description is compiled, as I have seen no specimens. 

 The measurements probably include the caudal fin, as Bleeker 

 in his earlier work gave the length from tip of snout to tip of 

 tail. 



The only Philippine record is by Weber, who obtained speci- 

 mens at Sanguisiapo, an island in the Tawitawi group. Ac- 

 cording to him it is widely distributed in the Indo-Australian 

 Archipelago and the South China Sea. It lives upon the reefs, 

 at low tide hiding in the puddles left under coral masses. 



The very apt name ophthalmotaenia, must be superseded by 

 cauerensis, as the latter, first described by Bleeker, is merely 

 the young of ophthalmotaenia. 



43. GOBIUS ORNATUS Riippell 



PLATE 7, FIG. 4 



Gobius ornatus RUPPELL, Atlas Fische des Roten Meers (1828) 135; 

 GUNTHER, Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. 3 (1861) 21; PETERS, Monatsber. 

 Akad. Wiss. Berlin (1868) 263; GUNTHER, Fische der Siidsee 2 

 (1876-1881) 172, pi. Ill, fig. A; DAY, Fishes of India (1878) 294, 

 pi. 63, fig. 1; JORDAN and RICHARDSON, Bull. Bur. Fisheries 27 

 (1908) 277; VAILLANT, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Ill 5 (1893) 

 57. 



