22 GouioiDi;. 



ACANTiiOVTERYGll. GOBIOID.E. 



THE SLENDER GOBY. 



Gobius gracilis. 



Crobius gracilis, Slender Goby, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 387. 



,, ,, Parnell, Wern. Mem. vol. vii. p. 245. 



This Goby, though described from Mr. Jenyns' work, was 

 not figured in the former volumes of the British Fishes. It 

 has probably been long confounded with Gobius minulus, but 

 is more slender, and otherwise distinguished. It was first 

 described by the Rev. Leonard Jenyns in his Manual of the 

 British Vertebrate Animals, from specimens obtained on the 

 coast of Essex. Dr. Parnell says, " This well-marked Goby 

 is occasionally fovmd in the Firth of Forth, but is not com- 

 mon ; it inhabits the same situations as the minutus, and they 

 are frequently taken together. I have found it in the Solway 

 Firth, and in much greater plenty on the southern coast of 

 England. It spawns in June, and is of little value except 

 as food for other fishes and aquatic birds." 



Mr. Jenyns' description is as follows : — 



" Length, three inches two lines. Form closely resembling 

 the miiiutus, but more elongated and slender throughout ; 

 greatest depth barely one-seventh of the whole length : snout 

 rather longer : opercle approaching more to triangular, the 



