• THE BRITISH BLACK GOBY. 113 



iiig the jaws equal, and the teeth curved, approximates it to that of Cuv. 

 and Val., but the number of fin-rays differs considerably. 



The species taken at Gahvay, which is new to the British catalogue, 

 occurs also in the Mediterranean, the collection of fishes from Corfu, 

 alluded to in the note to Trigla pceciloptcra as being in the Belfast ^lu- 

 seum, containing an individual in all respects, but that of size, quite 

 identical. 



Although the G. niger of ^lontagu and Jenyns accords better with the 

 description of Iinna?us — referring only to the number of fin-rays — than 

 the species for which Cuv. and Val. have adopted his name, yet, as several 

 other European gobies equally well agree with the brief characters in the 

 Systema Naturte, and it being necessary to give one of the two Avhich 

 have been confounded together a new name, it appears to me that the 

 species described as G. niger in the Histoire Xaturelle des Poissons of the 

 last-named authors — the greatest and most comprehensive work yet at- 

 tempted on the subject — should retain the term there given it, and that 

 it is to the Gohius niger of British authors that the new a])pcllation should 

 be applied. AVith this view I propose the name of Gabius Britxninicus, 

 not to indicate its existence only on the British shores, but in the hope 

 that it may perhaps, better than any other term, mark it as the species of 

 British authors. 



" As M. Valenciennes has observed that ' M. Varrell a public une charmanfe 

 figure de n6tre gobie,' (t. xii. p. 18,) it must be added that this figure is more 

 illustrative of my G. Britnnnicus than what 1 have considered the G. niger of 

 Cuv. and Val. ; all it indeed wants to be a perfect representation of that lish is 

 the lower jaw a little longer, and the teeth smaller, less regular, and truncated." 

 W. T. in Proc. of the Zoological Society, for 1837, p. 62. 



" Gobins niger, Cuv. and Val. ? and G. Britnnnicus, 'Jhomp. 



When recording a species of goby in 1837, as new to the British Fauna, 

 I stated my opinion, judging merely from description, that it was the 

 species described as G. niger by Cuv. and Val., Hist, des Poiss., t. xii. p. 

 9, and that it was at the same time distinct from the G. >;<//&/• of ]Montagu, 

 Yarr. Brit. Fish., vol. i. p. 252, and Jenyns. and ])robably from that of Var- 

 rell. Of the former species I had then seen but the one native specimen — 

 captured by myself in the bay of Galway — and therefore it was considered 

 injudicious to draw u]) the specific characters. Having now obtained from 

 Dr. II. Ball of Dublin two other specimens for examination — from the 

 coasts of Galway and Cork — I can do so with more confidence. Although 

 an easy task to point out the relative differences, it is not so with the ab- 

 solute characters ; these may be described as, 



G. niger, Cuv. and Val. ? G. Britannicus. 



Teeth on the outer rows of both Teeth of the outer rows not very 



jaws very much larger than the much larger than the others, and 



others, and curving inwards. like them straight and truncated 



at the summits. 



Scales small, with long cilia on their Scales rather large. 



free margins. 



D. 6-16; P. 20; V. 5 each; A. D. 6-14; P. 18; V. 1 -f o each ; 



13 ; C. 14, and some short. A. 12 ; C. 15, and some short.* 



* The examination of more specimens has shown that there is but little dis- 

 parity between these species in the dorsal sulcus and the comparative length of 

 jaws, although a difference did, in these respects, appear in tiie individuals first 



I 



