WHITE GOBY. 
267 
in young specimens 11 or 12 % of the length of the 
body, in adult males about 13 V 2 % and in gravid fe- 
males, according to Lilljeborg, as much as 18 %. 
The least depth of the body in young specimens, as 
well as in gravid females, is between 6 and 6 7 2 % of 
the length of the body, being thus nearly the same as 
in old specimens of Gobius minutus , while in adult 
males it is about 7 % of the length of the body, or 
about the same as in Gobius Jeffrey sii. The length of 
the head, which is even relatively less in young speci- 
mens than in old, especially in the males, varies be- 
tween 18 and 21 % of that of the body, and its greatest 
thickness in the former is less than 50 % of its length, 
in the latter at least 90 % thereof. The length of the 
snout in the former is about equal to the longitudinal 
diameter of the eye, which varies between 26 % and 
28 % of the length of the head; while in the males it 
is greater than the diameter of the eye, which in their 
case is about 24 % of the length of the head. The 
adult females occupy an intermediate position in this 
respect, as in several others. In young specimens and 
adult females the length of the lower jaw measures 10 
or 11 % of the length of the body, in adult males 
13 %. In young specimens, according to v. Duben 
and Ivokex, the distance between the beginning of the 
first dorsal fin and the tip of the snout is 28 or 28 1 / a 
% of the length of the body. In older specimens, espe- 
cially in the males, this distance is even relatively 
greater, measuring 30 or 31 % of the length of the 
body. In young specimens the base of this fin is less 
than 1 / 3 , in gravid females exactly 1 j 3 , and in adult 
males nearly 1 / 2 , of the distance between the first ray 
of the first dorsal fin and that of the second, this di- 
stance being, however, less in the males than in the 
females, measuring about 13 % of the length of the 
body in the former and about 15 % in the latter. The 
base of the second dorsal fin is also longest in the 
adult males, its length varying between 19 and 22 % 
of that of the body. The relative length of the anal 
fin, on the other hand, diminishes with increasing age 
and the development of the sexual characters, being 20 
or 21 % of the length of the body in young specimens, 
16 or 17 % in adult. We have already remarked the 
male character common in the Gobies, which in this 
species too, is expressed by the elongation of the pos- 
terior rays in the two fins last mentioned. The be- 
ginning of the anal fin lies just in front of the middle 
of the body, its distance from the tip of the snout in 
the females being about 49 % of the length of the 
body, in the males about 47 %. The length of the 
caudal fin increases even relatively with age, and is 
greatest in the adult males, varying between 13 and 
22 % of the length of the body. 
The distribution of the scales on the body is shown 
in the figures we have taken from Collett’s work, and 
the coloration, as far as its transparent nature could 
be reproduced, in the two figures which we have bor- 
rowed of Malm. 
Fig. 71. Apliya minuter, a, adult male, in the spawning-season; 
b, young male in winter; c, gravid female. Magn. 2 diam. cl, a scale 
from the middle of the side, more powerfully magnified. After Collett. 
In Scandinavia the White Goby has not yet been 
utilised as an article of food. The large numbers in 
which it occurs, occasionally at least, in Christiania 
Fjord, where Collett" at the end of November, 1880, 
for example, took about 40,000 at a single haul of 
the seine, among the Herring-fry, give us good reason 
to expect that here in Scandinavia, on the Norwegian 
coast and perhaps in Gullmar Fjord, where the species 
also occurs, with suitable tackle we may be able to 
establish a- fishery similar to that of more southern 
countries. There, according to Risso and Moreau, 
N. Mag. Naturv., 1. c., p. 63. 
