The Hifiory of ANIMALS, 
243 
Gobius pinna ventrali ccerulea, off cults pinn& dorfalis primm 
ajfurgentibus . 
The Gobius 5 with the ventral fin blue , the, rays of the 
back fin affurgent . 
I 
3030. 
This grows to lix or eight inches in length, and to about an inch in diameter : the 
head is thick, but it is fomewhat compreffed; the body is rounded, but is alfo a little 
compreffed; the opening of the mouth is large: the eyes are large, and Hand near 
one another on the upper part of the head ; their iris is of a filvery white ; the pupil is 
large and bluilh : the colour of the body is a pale bluilh-grey ; the fins are alfo of a 
greyifh colour, and the tips of them blue ; the belly fins in particular, which are beau¬ 
tifully connected together into the form of a funnel, are entirely blue : the fcales are 
fmall and rough: the lateral line is broad, confpicuous, and black; the rays of the 
former, or more anterior, of the back fins, Hand up beyond the edge of the membrane. 
This fpecies is frequent in the Mediterranean; it was very well known to the an- 
tients. Ariftotle calls it KwSi©* aoik^.j and Athenaeus, ; Rondelef, 
Gefner, and others, Gobio and Gobius albus, confounding it with the former fpecies; 
Willughby calls it Gobius tertius Jozo Romaa Salviani. 
Gobius uncialis pinna dorfi fecunda ojficulorum fepten - 
decim . 3tpl)pa 
The fmall Gobius 3 with feventeen rays in the fecond CoWt£S>* 
dorfal fin . 
This is a very pretty, though a very fmall, fi£h: the head is fhort and fomewhat com- 
preffed ; the body is rounded, and is alfo fomewhat compreffed : the length of the whole 
fifh is but about an inch and a half; the mouth is fmall, and the eyes alfo are fmall: 
there is a fmall fulcus or depreffion behind the head, running to the back fin : the fcales 
are fmall and rough; the colour of the whole body is a pal§ yellowifh-grey. The 
firft of the two back fins has fix rays; the fecond has feventeen : the pedoral fins have 
each feventeen rays; the ventral ones have only fix rays each, and are connected toge¬ 
ther as in the other fpecies: the pinna ani has eleven rays; the firft rays of the firft 
back fin are rigid and prickly: the fins are all of a pale greyifh colour, but thofe of 
the back and the tail are variegated with tranfverfe lines of brown. 
This fpecies is very frequent in the Mediterranean ; it fwims in vaft fhoals about 
the fhores there, as our minnows do in the frefh waters : it was very well known to 
the antients. Ariftotle calls it i Kw£m? j and Athensus, *A(pu« JtwSmj; from this name 
moft of the Latin writers have called it Aphya Cobitis; fome, Aphya Gobitis and Go- 
binaria; Gefner and Aldrovand call it Marfio and Marfio Venetorum ; the Venetians call 
it Marfione and Pignoletti. It has been efteemed by many writers to be only the 
young of fome of the larger fpecies; but this is an error, for it never exceeds this fize, 
and it’s fpecific characters are different from thofe of all the others. ; 
X I P H I A S. 
T H E roftrum or extremity of the head of the Xiphias is continued forward, 
with an extreamly long point, of a depreffed or fomewhat flatted figure, re- 
fembling the blade of a (word, and of a bony ftrudture: the body is oblong, and of 
a rounded figure; there are no belly fins, and on the back there is only one fin, which 
is very long, and loweft in the middle : the branchioftege membrane, on each fide, 
contains only eight bones. 
Of this Angular genus there is but one known fpecies. 
\ 
Xiphias. MPOttbffll). 
This is a very large fifh; about fifteen feet in length is the fize of a moderately large 
one, but it not unfrequently is met with much bigger : the. body is of a rounded ra¬ 
ther than a flatted figure, and is confiderably thick, in proportion to it’s length : the 
2 back 
