140 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



mouth small, with projecting chin, and usually not extending 

 back as far as eye; rarely the posterior angle of maxillary under 

 forward margin of eye; the tongue truncate; the upper half of 

 preopercle, upper part of opercle, and base of pectoral covered 

 with small scales ; minute scales extend upon pectoral and caudal 

 rays; occasionally a specimen has a row of scales below midline 

 of papillae on preopercle; the cheeks swollen, and below the 

 scaled areas are one or more longitudinal lines of fine warts or 

 papillae and a marginal row on both opercle and preopercle; the 

 large, open, posterior nostril in front of middle of eye; above 

 it a large pore, and a large pore at both anterior and posterior 

 margins of interorbital space; large pores behind and beneath 

 eye, along supra-opercular groove, and on posterior margin of 

 preopercle ; about seventeen rows of scales before dorsal, smaller 

 than those on sides and extending to eyes and advancing into 

 interorbital space; the broad caudal peduncle contained twice 

 to 1.75 times in head ; the tips of second, third, and sometimes 

 fourth dorsal spines elongate, reaching soft dorsal when de- 

 pressed; in some specimens they become threadlike and greatly 

 elongate, so that they reach to posterior axil of soft dorsal, as 

 in the type of the species; the soft dorsal and anal similar in 

 outline, the posterior rays elongate, reaching base of caudal 

 when depressed, and longer than depth of body at their base ; the 

 base of anal approximately 0.75 as long as that of second dorsal; 

 the pectorals rather narrow and pointed, little longer than the 

 large broad ventrals, which sometimes extend to anus or even 

 to the long slender anal papilla; the length of the large broad 

 caudal equals or is greater than that of head. 



The color in alcohol varies from greenish to reddish and 

 yellowish brown, much darker dorsally, becoming pale or whitish 

 underneath, with five large, dark brown or blackish spots along 

 middle of side, the last at base of caudal ; sometimes these are 

 connected by a dark bar; along the back are seven indistinct 

 dark brown crossbands, the last on top of the caudal peduncle; 

 sometimes the crossbands are reduced to a series of lateral spots 

 high up, with narrow brown stripes showing along middle of 

 back; the nape sprinkled with small brown spots and several 

 short dark brown lines lie behind eye and between it and origin 

 of first dorsal ; a dark brown line extends diagonally downward 

 from lower margin of eye to base of pectoral and another, more 

 horizontal one, from behind angle of mouth to base of pectoral; 

 the last two lines may be broken into oblong spots ; both dorsals 

 and caudal more or less marked or barred by large spots of dark 



