178 PISCES. 



among the rocks near the shore. Most of them have a simple nata- 

 tory bladder. 



GoBius, Lacep. and Schn. 



In the true Gobies the ventrals are united throughout their whole 

 length and even before their base by a traverse, so as to form a 

 concave disk. The body is elongated; head moderate and rounded; 

 cheeks inflated and the eyes approximated; two dorsal fins, the last 

 of which is long. Several species inhabit the seas of Europe, whose 

 characters are not yet sufficiently ascertained. (1) 



They prefer a clayey bottom, where they excavate canals in which 

 they pass the winter. In the spring they prepare a nest in some 

 spot abounding with fucus, which they afterwards cover with 

 roots of the Zostera; here the male remains shut up, and awaits the 

 females, who successively arrive to deposit their eggs; he fecun- 

 dates them, and exhibits much care and courage in defending and 

 preserving them.(2) 



G. niger, L.; Penn., Brit. Zool. pi. 38. (The Common Goby.) 

 Body blackish-brown; dorsals bordered with whitish; the most 

 common species on the coast of Europe. The extremities of 

 the superior rays of the pectorals are free; length, four or five 

 inches. 



G. jozzo, B\.,\07, f. 5. (The Blue Goby.) Brown, marbled 

 with blackish; blackish fins; two white lines on the first dorsal, 

 whose rays are prolonged in filaments above the membrane. 



G. 7mnw/Ks,L.; J^phia, Penn. pi. 37. (The White Goby.) Body 

 a pale fawn-colour; fins whitish, transversely marked with fawn- 

 coloured lines: length, from two to three inches. 

 The Mediterranean, which is perhaps inhabited by these three 

 species, produces several others of different sizes and colours.(3) 



G. capitOj Cuv.; Gesner, 396. (The Great Goby.) Olive, 



(1) Belon and Rondelet have endeavoured to prove that this fish is the Gobius 

 of the ancients, and Artedi pretends to have found in the ocean the badly deter- 

 mined Mediterranean species of those authors. Hence has arisen a most inextrica- 

 ble confusion, to disentangle which, it is necessary to recommence both descrip- 

 tions and figures, a task we shall partially undertake in our Icthyology. 



(2) These observations were made by the late Olivi, on a Goby of the canals of 

 Venice, which he considers identical with the niger, but which is perhaps another 

 of the numerous Mediterranean species; they are given by M. de Martens in the 

 second volume of his Voy. to Venice, p. 4l9. My conclusion is, that the Goby is 

 the Phycis of the ancients, •' the only fish that constructs a nest," Arist. Hist., lib. 

 VIII, cap. XXX. 



(3) See tile descriptions, but without wholly adopting the nomenclature of 

 Risso, Icht. de Nice, p. 155, et seq. 



