316 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



c. 2 Scales microscopic; dorsal V or VI, 1-24 to 26; teeth in lower jaw 

 acute, simple, or medium size Scartelaos. 



Genus 68. PERIOPHTHALMUS Bloch and Schneider 



Periophthalmus BLOCH and SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth. (1801) 63. 



The teeth erect and in a single row in both jaws, some of them 

 stout, conical, and resembling canines; two large oval patches 

 of pharyngeal teeth above and a triangular one below, each 

 with few to many rows of fine, sharp to coarser conical teeth; 

 the ventrals more or less suborbiculate, united basally; the pec- 

 torals long, with very large muscular scaly bases, which the 

 fish is able to use as legs or arms; the dorsal spines flexible, 

 variable in number, the dorsals far apart; the entire body cov- 

 ered with a greatly variable number of small cycloid or minutely 

 ctenoid scales, which extend forward of eyes and on sides of 

 head to snout, the anterior scales minute. 



There is apparently but a single polymorphic species, varying 

 greatly in size, coloration, scale count, and fins, but all inter- 

 grading so that the ten or more named members of this genus 

 are probably all of the same species. It is one of the most ex- 

 traordinary of all fishes, and detailed accounts of- its habits may 

 read like an extravaganza to one who has never seen it perform- 

 ing on some mud flat or beside some jungle-embowered tidal 

 creek. 



161. PERIOPHTHALMUS BARBARUS (Linneus) 



PLATE 24, FIG. 3 



Gobius barbarus LiNNJEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766) 450. 

 Periophthalmus papilio BLOCK and SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth. (1801) 



63, pi. 14 (caudal fin bad) ; CUVIER and VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. 



Poiss. 12 (1837) 143, pi. 353 (caudal fin bad). 

 Periophthalmus koelreuteri BLOCK and SCHNEIDER, Syst. Ichth. (1801) 



65; GiiNTHER, Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. 3 (1861) 97; DAY, Fishes of 



India (1878) 303, pi. 64, fig. 8; MEYER, Ann., Soc. Espana Hist. 



Nat. 14 (1885) 29; HICKSON, A Naturalist in North Celebes (1889) 



30-32, colored frontispiece. 

 Periophthalmus barbarus JORDAN and SEALE, Bull. Bur. Fisheries 25 



(1906) 393, fig. 1; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 28 (1905) 794; JORDAN 



and RICHARDSON, Bull. Bur. Fisheries 27 (1908) 276. 

 Periophthalmus chrysospilus JORDAN and SEALE, Bull. Bur. Fisheries 



26 (1907) 41. 



Bicol name, tambasakan; Ilocano, banasak; Tao Sug, tamin- 

 dak; Tagalog, talimosak; Visayan, tambasakan, at Romblon ; ta- 

 masak, in Leyte and Panay; mud skipper. 



