40 gangetic fishes. Order IV. 



readily numbered. The openings of the gills are of moderate 

 size. 



The lateral line is in the middle of the side, and straight 

 The vent is before the middle. 



There are seven fins. On the bach are two, of which the 

 hindermost is by much the longer, and its rays are nearly of 

 equal lengths : neither has prickles. The pectoral fins are 

 short and round. The ventral fin contains twelve rays. The 

 anal fin runs almost the whole length of the tail, nearly oppo- 

 site to the hindermost on the back, and its rays are all nearly 

 of equal length. The tail fin is oval, and ends in a sharp 

 point. 



These fishes have a strong affinity to the Gobius lanceolatus of 

 Bloch, [Ichth. Tome II. p. 7, Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 1,) but are 

 abundantly distinct species. 



1st Species. — Gobius bato. Plate XXXVII. Fig. 10. 



A gobius with an eel-like body, with five rays in the first 

 dorsal fin, twenty-one in the second, and twenty-two in the fin 

 behind the vent. 



This small fish is found in the estuaries of the Ganges. 

 The body is slippery, above of a pale green colour, with nume- 

 rous black dots, and beneath white, with a silvery gloss on the 

 sides. The whole is somewhat diaphanous, so that the mus- 

 cles are visible, their divisions forming, as it were, veins which 

 proceed from the lateral lines. The upper fins are dotted. 

 The eyes are golden coloured. 



The mouth is very large. The upper lip is fleshy ; the under 

 scarcely observable. The teeth are sharp, and many of them 

 have a double point. The tongue is blunt, its root is covered 

 with tubercles, and it is of a green colour, with a golden gloss. 

 What I take to be the nostrils, are two minute tubercles on the 



10 



