GOBIES AND BLENNIES. 
169 
the above engraving : in colour it is very variable ; 
generally some shade of brown prevails, from 
plain drab, or dull wood-brown, to reddish- brown, 
usually darker above than below, and frequently 
mottled on the sides. 
The habits of this fish, as far as recorded, seem 
generally those common to the genus. Its want 
of an air-bladder compels it to live for the most 
part at the bottom, usually selecting some piece 
of rock as its home, about which it plays, and 
under which it hides when danger approaches. 
At the recess of the tide, according to Mr. Couch’s 
observations, the larger individuals, that cannot 
find concealment in pools or beneath the stones, 
quit the water, and by means of their pectorals 
creep into holes, rarely more than one in each, 
where, lying with the head pointing outward, 
they patiently wait the return of the tide to set 
them at liberty. Should they be alarmed when 
thus watching, they retreat backward to the bot- 
tom of their caverns. The observant zoologist, 
who records these facts, infers from them that the 
Shanny is retentive of life, in further proof of 
which he mentions that he has known it to con- 
tinue lively after a confinement of thirty hours 
in a dry box ; though immersion in fresh water 
would be presently fatal to it. 
Colonel Montagu has also remarked on the 
Shanny’s tenacity of life ; stating that it will live 
out of water for many days in a damp place, es- 
pecially if put into fresh grass or moss moistened 
with sea-water, and presuming that with a little 
attention it might be kept alive in this way for 
several weeks. 
In our account of the habits of the Trigladce^ 
