GOBIOIDES. 349 



another blenny, mimis tlie ventrals.' This is a very fool- 

 ish community, if we take their character from Plautus, 

 whoj in 'Bacchidides/ compares them to other pudding- 

 headed inanities, grouping together as synonyms, stulti, 

 stolidi, fatui, fungi, bardi, blenni. The gobies, like the 

 blennies, are coated v, ith slime, but, unlike them, possess 

 a singular disk, formed by the union of the two thoracic 

 ventrals, which (like a boy's leathern stone-lifter) is ca- 

 pable of strong adhesion, either to a rock or to whatever 

 other object the owner may choose to attach it.* One 

 species, gobius niger, the boulereau of the French, 

 being a well-flavoured fish, is perhaps (but as there are 

 several species it is still but ' perhaps') the ancient Latin 

 gobius, the rpdryo^ of the Greeks, which used to be in 

 such esteem at Rome and Venice ; 



At Venice, famed for dainty dislies, 

 The gobies rank tlie first of fislies, 



says Martial ; 



Nor doubt your tliroat of mullets to amerce, 

 While scarce a ffoby lingers in your purse, 



writes Juvenal ; intending, no doubt, to teach men to be 

 content with a small luxury when a larger was beyond 

 their means. 



Olivi relates of one species, very carefully observed by 

 him at Venice, that the male first chooses some place 

 where fuci abound, in order to make a nest, which he 

 then covers with the long, floating roots of zostera, or 

 grass- wrack ; and there remains, shut up like a Chinese 

 husband, expecting his wife's confinement ; as the lady 

 gobies arrive to deposit their interesting burdens, he fe- 

 cundates all in succession, and afterwards defends his ofi'- 

 spring with as much courage as he had shown care and 



* We have had one fasten so close as to require some force to 

 detach it from our hand, even when out of the water. 



M 3 



