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EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



It appears that a new fish may be added to our faunistic catalogues, if 

 carefully sought. Mr. G. A. Boulenger, in this (September) number of the 

 ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' gives the following particulars. 

 "Last year in the Bay of Concarneau, and this year in the Gulf of St. Malo, 

 my attention was attracted to a large Goby, growing to 10 inches, and most 

 excellent eating, which appears to have been overlooked by all authors who 

 have written on the fishes of the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. 

 This Goby I have ascertained to be Gobius capito, C. & V., a species 

 believed to be restricted to the Mediterranean." 



As it is highly probable that this species will be added to our British 

 fauna, Mr. Boulenger has given the following diagnosis to assist our 

 British ichthyologists : — " Habit particularly stout and heavy ; depth of 

 body 5 times in total length; length of head 3f times. Head a little 

 broader than deep ; snout 1J diameter of eye, which is h\ times in length 

 of head, and a little exceeds interorbital width ; strongly enlarged outer 

 teeth in the jaws; maxillary extending to below posterior third of eye; 

 head scaly only on the occipital and upper opercular regions. The 

 distance between the eye and the dorsal equals the distance between the 

 end of the snout and the preopercle. Dorsal VI, 15, the two portions very 

 narrowly separated ; the longest soft rays \ length of head, a little longer 

 than the rays of the first fin, the base of which measures \ its distance from 

 end of snout. Anal with 12 rays. Pectoral J length of head, with silk-like 

 upper rays. Ventral not reaching vent, with well-developed anterior flap 

 forming an obtusely pointed process on each side. Caudal rounded. 

 Caudal peduncle as long as deep. 61 scales in a longitudinal series, 

 22 between dorsal and anal. Greenish to blackish olive, more or less 

 spotted and marbled with black ; dorsal and caudal fins spotted with black : 

 ventral whitish ; yellowish white beneath. Total length 19 centimetres. 



" Of the two British species with which this Gobius may have been con- 

 founded, G. paganellus and G. niger differ in the larger scales, there not 

 being more than 17 between the dorsal and the anterior rays of the anal 

 and 55 in a lateral series, and in the absence of the antero-lateral lobe of 

 the ventral disk." 



We trust that we may soon receive an account of the capture of Gobius 

 apito along our southern coasts. 



