46 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



FAMILY XVII.— Gobies {Gobiida). 



Body elongate, naked or scaled ; teeth usually small, 

 sometimes including distinct canines ; spinous dorsal fin or 

 moiety of the dorsal fin the less developed, its membrane 

 supported by simply flexible spines ; the ventral fins 

 usually (in all British species) united with each other in 

 such a manner as to form a funnel-shaped disc ; branch- 

 iostegal rays four to six in number. 



The Goby family includes a very large number of small 

 carnivorous fishes that are essentially inhabitants of the 

 litoral zone, some of them adapting themselves to a fresh- 

 water habitat. As many as nine species are included in the 

 British list, the largest form, known as the Black Goby or 

 Rock Goby (Gobitis niger), No. 59, attaining to a length 

 of eight or nine inches, while certain of the smaller ones 

 measure no more than one or two inches. 



The Black Goby, which may be taken as the type of its 

 family, is frequently met with beneath large stones at low 

 water, it selecting such a habitat not only as an ordinary 

 domicile, but as a nursery where it may safely deposit and 

 hatch its spawn. The eggs, as frequently observed by the 

 writer, are of a very singular shape, being elongate, ovate, 

 or fusiform, about three times as long as broad, and are 

 attached vertically by one of the smaller ends in a single, 

 closely approximated layer, that may extend over an area 

 of many square inches of the undersurface of the rock 

 selected. Over these eggs the male fish now mounts guard, 

 vigorously repelling all would-be intruders with whom he 

 can cope on equal terms, and in those instances in which 

 the disturbing influences are apparently too strong for him — 

 such as human interference — resorting, in self-defence, to 

 an artful stratagem. On several occasions, when shore- 



