318 GOBIES OF THE PHILIPPINES 



1.9 in head; in males the anal papilla elongate-ellipsoid, thin, 

 flat; in females the anal papilla is remarkable in shape, large, 

 flat, suborbicular, with a deeply notched apex. 



The color of this remarkable species is exceedingly variable; 

 in life it is often gray or olive brown, with white, blue, sil- 

 very, brown, or black spots and dots, the light spots usually 

 on head; the first dorsal brown or dusky violet, with a black 

 or dark brown transverse band near and parallel to the white 

 margin ; the first spine white and white spots may be scattered 

 over basal and posterior part of fin; the second dorsal has a 

 white upper margin; below this is a wide black crossband, 

 edged below by a narrow white band; the rest of the fin red- 

 dish brown, brown, or black, sprinkled with white dots and 

 spots; the pectoral and caudal marked by numerous crossbars 

 of brown dots; the lower or ventral rays of caudal yellowish 

 or whitish; the anal and ventrals whitish or colorless. 



Other specimens pale bluish green to bluish brown, with 

 eight to ten dark or blackish brown bands over back and run- 

 ning diagonally forward and downward on sides, the head more 

 or less dotted with bluish; the fins as already given, except that 

 the dorsal fins may have a decided yellow instead of white color 

 on them ; the second dorsal often has the margin colorless, then 

 a white stripe, a broad black band, and another white stripe; 

 the rest of the fin brown, sprinkled with white. 



The color in alcohol is not greatly different, the bright sil- 

 ver, white, or blue spots fading, and the whole fish becoming 

 browner, the spots on the pectoral and caudal less evident. 



This extraordinary creature has excited curiosity from time 

 immemorial. Its strange habits, so unfishlike, its astonishing 

 acrobatic feats of agility, its ability to send its eyes aloft and 

 keep one fixed on the human observer while the other rotates 

 in its conning tower and scans the countryside for prey or foe, 

 its enterprise in leaving the water and capturing its crusta- 

 cean and insect food on land, its habit of leaping along the 

 surface of the water and then taking refuge on land instead 

 of at the bottom of a pool all these and many other singular 

 traits have caused it to be observed and studied by the ordinary 

 tourist as well as by the fisherman and naturalist. One of 

 its favorite attitudes is to cling to some rock or lie on the shore 

 line with only the tail end of its body in the water. Exper- 

 iment and observation have shown that it can obtain sufficient 



