168 
ONE-SPOTTED GOBY. 
bands or stripes. But the distinguishing marie which has been 
assigned to this fish is found on the first dorsal fin, and which 
is described as a black spot, of a constant character, between 
the fifth and sixth rays. Our representation will shew, however, 
that this spot, if so it may be termed, by no means invariably 
answers to the description given of it. In one example it 
occupied, in a triangular form, more than half of the anterior 
portion of the upper border of the fin, and also more widely 
the posterior border; but below the first portion it was bordered 
with a white stripe that was directed obliquely upward, and 
the second portion was bordered with a bent line below, and 
both these white marks were succeeded below by a darker tint. 
In another specimen the anterior portion of this black mark 
was narrower, but bordered above by a white edge to the fin. 
The lower portion of the fin in this instance was decidedly 
dark. 
Naturalists are not agreed whether the species termed 
the Spotted Goby f' Goiius minutus,) be or be not a younger 
condition or variety of the One-Spotted Goby. It was the 
opinion of Dr. Parnell that he had proved them to be dififerent, 
while the decision of Dr. Gunther is to the contrary; and it 
must be confessed that I have not been able to discover any 
difference between them, except in the size of the fishes and 
the presence or absence of the spots that ornament the first 
dorsal fin. The question therefore is left undecided, and we 
content ourselves with extracts from the authors already quoted. 
Dr. Parnell, as referred to by Mr. Yarrell, says: — “This fish, 
although closely allied to the other species of the same genus, 
is undoubtedly quite distinct from them, the black spot on 
the first dorsal fin being far more constant and conspicuous 
than any character which distinguishes the rest of the British 
Gobies. The only species it can well be mistaken for is the 
G. minutusi but differs from it in having a black spot between 
the fifth and sixth rays of the first dorsal fin, the second dorsal 
with eleven rays, and the tail fin even at the extremity. Whereas 
the G. minutus has no black spot between the fifth and sixth 
rays of the first dorsal fin; the rays of the second dorsal ten 
in number, and the tail fin rounded at the end.” On these 
points Dr Gunther’s observation is, that Parnell’s assertion 
“that specimens with a spot on the first dorsal fin have two 
