ACANTHOPTER.YGIANS. 149 



muzzle a little shorter than that of the Sauclet; eight spines in the 

 first dorsal, twelve soft rays in the second, fifteen or sixteen in the 

 anal, and fifty vertebras. 



The Atherinae foreign to Europe are numerous*. 



The twelfth family of the Acanthopterygians, or that of 



FAMILY XII. 



GOBIOIDES. 



The Gohioides are recognized by the dorsal spines being thin and 

 flexible. All these fishes have about the same kind of intestines, that is, 

 a large uniform intestinal canal without caeca, and no natatory bladder. 



Blennius, Lin. 



The Blennies have a strongly marked character in their ventral fins, 

 which are placed before the pectorals, and consist of only two rays. The 

 stomach is slender, and has no cul-de-sac, the intestine large but without 

 a caecum, and there is no natatory bladder. The body is elongated and 

 compressed, and has but a single dorsal, almost entirely composed of simple 

 but flexible rays. They live in small troops among the rocks on the coast, 

 leaping and playing, and are capable of living without water for some 

 time. A slimy mucus is smeared over their skin, to which they owe their 

 Greek name of Blennius (a), and their French name Baveuscs. Several are 

 viviparous, and there is a tubercle near the anus of all of them, and in 

 both sexes, which appears destined for the purposes of coition. We di- 

 vide them as follows: 



Blennius, Cuv. 



The Blennies, properly so called, whose long, equal, and closely set 

 teeth, form but a single and regular range in each jaw, terminated behind, 

 in some species, by a longer and hooked tooth. The head is obtuse, the 

 muzzle short, and the forehead vertical; the intestines broad and short. 

 Most of them have a fimbriated appendage on each brow, and several have 

 another on each temple. Several species of this subdivision are taken 

 along the coast of France ; one of the most remarkable is the 



Bl. ocellaris, Bl. 167, 1. (The Ocellated Blenny). The dorsal 

 bilobate, its anterior lobe elevated and marked with a round and black 

 spot, surrounded with a white circle and a black one. 



Bl. tentacularis, Brunn.; Bl. 107, 2, under the name Bl. galto- 



* Alher. tacunosa, Forst., Bl. Schn. \\'I, probably the liepsclus of Forsk. 69; — A. 

 endrachtensis, Quoy and Gaym., Freycin. Zool. p. 334; — A. Jacksomuna, Id. 333; — 

 A. brasiliensis, Id. 332; — A. neso-galica, Cuv., Lacep. V, pi. xi, f. 1, which is not the 

 same as the A. pinguis of the text. — A. mcenidia of Lin., which is not, as he sup- 

 poses, the mcenidia of Brown, Jam. pi. xlv, f. 3, hut is the A. votata, Mitch, op. oit 

 I, pi. iv, f. 6; and several others to be described in our Icthyology. 



IgaJ^ (a) From the Greek word bteiuw, mucus from the nostrils. — Eng. Ed. 



