590 Mr. F. Pickard-Cambridge on the 
The following measurements represent those of a male of 
rather less than full size:— 
Fin-rays. Scales. 
ee ee ee 
B. Tot. H. Sn, BE, Io. Dp. Cp. Ist D) aii Ray. 2nd DU ac eee meee? 
; 6) 18 Jie Vide aul is 18 Se ae 
Golius niger, Linn. 
(Black Goby.) 
1758. Gobius niger, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. x. t. i. p. 362. 
1836. Gobius niger, Yarrell, British Fishes, vol. i. p. 251 (ad partem). 
1836. Gobius britannicus, Thompson, P. Z. 8. p. 61. 
1863. Gobius niyer, Couch, Fishes of the British Islands, vol. ii. p. 153 
(ad partem). : 
1889. Gobius niger, Day, Fishes of Gt. Brit. and Irel. vol. i. p. 163, 
pl. lit. fig. 3. - b 
1881. Gobius niger, Moreau, Hist. Nat. Poiss. de France, ii. p. 230. 
1891. Gobius niger, Petersen, Fiskeri-Beretning Kbhyn. p. 244, pl. v. 
fig. 5. 
1893. Gobius niger, Smitt, Scandinavian Fishes, pt. 1, p. 245, pl. xii. 
figs. 5-5. 
1897. Gobius niger, Beckford, Proc. Dors. Nat. Hist. Field-Club, xviii. 
a2 
1903. Gobius niger, Holt & Byrne, Report of Sea and Inland Fisheries 
of Ireland for 1901, p. 43, fig. 1. 
It is not possible to tell from Linnzeus’s diagnosis alone 
exactly to which species he gave the name n7ger, for he merely 
says: “pinna dorsi secunda radiis quatuordecim.” The 
question has, however, been already settled, so far as it can 
be, by the Scandinavian authors, whose identification we 
must accept. 
There is no reasonable doubt that the gobies usually 
identified as G. niger by modern English authors are identical 
with those described under that name by Petersen and 
Smitt, and the species has been so thoroughly described by 
Holt and Byrne, in their admirable monograph of the gobies 
of Great Britain and Ireland, that further description seems 
unnecessary. 
One might, however, mention a few of the characters in 
which this species differs and may be recognized from either 
G. paganellus or G. capito. 
Total length of full-grown examples 5 inches. Boulenger 
(Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1899, ser. 7, vol. iv. p. 229) quotes 
Mr. Allen of Plymouth to this effect. Holt and Byrne 
(loc. cit.) also give “about 5 inches” as the usual adult 
length, and I have before me examples of the male from 
i=) ‘ d 
Poole Harbour, Dorset, which also reach 5 inches. 
