16 a 
TWO-SPOTTED GOBY. 
DOUBLY-SPOTTED GOBY. 
G-ohius Ruthensparri, Cuviee. 
“ hipunctatus, Yaereli,; Br. Fishes, vol i, p. 285. 
“ Ruthensparri, Gukihee; Oat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 76. 
There is a little natural section of the family of Gobies, in 
which the species differ from those we have described, as well 
in form as habits, but of which the characters have not been 
marked with the discrimination required to determine the 
species, and of which therefore more than one or two have 
been confounded together. These we shall endeavour to dis- 
tinguish; and, however unwilling to increase the number of 
synonymous names of fishes which may have been noticed 
and defined by foreign naturalists in books to which I have 
not obtained access, I shall be compelled for the sake of 
perspicuity, to apply to one or two of them names not hitherto 
in use, but which will be expressive of some individual 
character or peculiarity. 
This small division of the genus is formed of fishes of small 
size, which on that account receive little notice from fishermen; 
who are not aware of the fact that they are of value to them 
so far as that they form the food of species of larger size, 
which, in pursuit of them, are drawn within the reach of their 
productive labour. Indeed so small are these Gobies, that for 
the most part they cannot be preserved in collections in the 
manner of the greater number of fishes; and, besides the 
shrinking which they undergo if preserved in spirit, their 
colours, which are usually of much beauty, will generally be 
found to vanish if thus treated; which circumstance will serve 
to explain how it is we meet with such imperfect representations 
of them in works on the history of nature. 
