302 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



the generic name Sicydium. This name can be limited to those 

 members of the group without enlarged teeth at the symphysis 

 of the mandible, and under it can be placed the first seven species 

 described by Grant. 



Of the remainder, two species have been placed by other 

 authors under Bleeker's genus Microsicydium. This leaves fif- 

 teen species which, with Sicyopterus japonicus (Tanaka), two 

 species from Ceram described by Beaufort, and the five new 

 species now presented, make up the genus Sicyopterus as here 

 understood. 



The various species range from Japan to Samoa and the Society 

 Islands, and from Hawaii to Burmah and the Isle of Reunion, 

 their center of distribution being in the East Indies. 



The diagnoses by Gill and Bleeker are incorrect and un- 

 satisfactory, not being based on a critical examination of the 

 teeth under a high power of the microscope. Under a simple 

 lens the tricuspid teeth appear simple or perhaps bifid. Guiche- 

 not's genus and Bleeker's subgenus Cotylopus, if based on 

 the supposed bilobed character of the teeth, cannot stand, for 

 the teeth are really tricuspid. However, Cotylopus and Jordan 

 and Evermann's genus Sicyosus are probably valid through the 

 presence of other characters. 



These dull-colored, inconspicuous fishes abound in bowlder- 

 strewn mountain streams where the current is moderately swift. 

 They love to lie above large rocks where they bask in the sun- 

 light, protected by a shallow stratum of rippling water. Here 

 they nibble at minute algas, ready to slip out of sight beneath 

 the bowlder at the first movement made by man or bird. Al- 

 though authors state they are "confined to fresh waters near 

 the sea," they really go down to the sea to spawn, in common 

 with many other fresh-water gobies. Their fry, which ascend 

 the Ilocano and Cagayan streams, form one of the most im- 

 portant sources of ipon during the autumnal months. In both 

 Mindanao and Luzon they ascend to an altitude of 1,000 meters 

 or more. 



The Philippine species, with the exception of one record from 

 Palawan by Boulenger (of which I have seen no authentic 

 representative), include three sections of the genus; one with 

 the upper lip entire, one having a type of cleft upper lip close 

 to that found in Sicyopterus stimpsoni Gill, from Hawaii, but 



