264 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
of the veins in the circulation of the blood; when the 
mouth is being closed, they hinder the passage of the 
water, which is thus forced back through the gill-open- 
ings. They are, therefore, most highly developed in fishes 
whose teeth are too long to admit of the entire closing 
of the mouth, and to a certain extent they take the place 
of mobile lips, which might perform the same function. 
In spite of the somewhat small size of these folds in 
the Gobies, they are still sufficiently developed to en- 
able the fish to maintain a continuous Aoav of water 
into the mouth, without moving the jaws. They only 
act when the mouth is open and while it is being closed. 
As soon as the mouth is shut, the lips serve the same 
purpose. But just because the folds operate only when 
the mouth is open, the fish is able to pump in water with 
its free, very broad and flat tongue, in exactly the same 
way as certain parts of the maxillary feet of the Deca- 
pods pump out water from the gill-sac. When the 
tongue is protruded, the water fills the pouches formed 
by the folds, the opening of the mouth is stopped, and the 
water is forced back. In this way many kinds of small 
creatures are caught which the fish would lose, if they 
were disturbed by the stronger motions of the jaws. ' 
D'Orbigny" often observed the Freckled Goby in 
the salt-water reservoirs in the neighbourhood of La 
Rochelle, and he states that it there takes up its 
abode under some shell, and digs small hollows, radi- 
ating from this centre, in the sand. There it lies 
and watches, until some tiny creature falls into one 
of the hollows, when it instantly darts out and seizes 
its victim. 
That the Freckled Goby, however, does not always 
feed on such small creatures, is shown by Sundevall’s 
collections made in the island-belt of Stockholm. Among 
them we find a Freckled Goby, 50 mm. long, that has 
swallowed the third part of a Ten-spined Stickleback 
( Gasterosteus pungitius), of at least half its own length, 
which has, however, stuck in its throat, piercing its 
palate with the anterior dorsal spines. 
According to Malm the Freckled Goby is also easy 
to catch, as it readily takes a hook baited with a bit 
of shellfish. 
This species is of as little immediate value to man 
as the rest of the genus; but Heincke states that it 
forms the chief part of the food of the Cod and the 
Bullhead, and some portion of that of the Herring. 
Genus APHYA. 
Body fairly elongated , sides covered with thin, deciduous, cycloid scales. Simple, fixed , pointed or in part blunt 
teeth, in a single or double row, in the lower jaw and on the intermaxillary bones. Five rays in the first dorsal 
fin. Funnel formed by the ventral fins united to the ventral side only at the base. Gape comparatively large, 
and the jaws long, the least depth of the tail being at most 60 % of the length of the lower jaw, which is equal 
to, or more than, half the length of the head. Branchiostegal membranes coalescent only in front, at the tip of 
the isthmus, and the gill-openings, therefore, large and 
In England Whitebait ( Clupea alba) is the name 
given to a number of small fishes, consisting chiefly of 
young Herrings, Sticklebacks etc., which are caught in 
considerable quantities, and, when fried, form a much 
esteemed dish; and in the countries bordering on the 
Mediterranean, Nonnat 1 ' or Nounat is the French name 
applied to fishes used in the same way, fried or stewed 
in milk, and consisting chiefly of young Atherines and 
the fry of the species which forms the genus Apliya. 
broad, set almost horizontally. Branchiostegal rays 5. 
Even the ancient Greeks, however, had acquired a taste 
for this course of fish, quickly parboiled in oil, and 
called the small fishes capvrp, in the belief that they 
were not generated in the ordinary way, but “created 
in the water,” to use an expression still in vogue among 
the Scandinavian fishermen (i. e., born of the sea-foam 
etc.). Aristotle, however, distinguished between several 
kinds of these fishes, and regarded some of them as 
really being the fry of other fishes. Among these he 
a Valenciennes (Guv., Val., 1. c., p. 43). 
6 Non natus. 
c a priv. and cpvio, to beget. 
