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Show 178 PISCES. among the rocks near the shore. tory bladder. Most of them have a simple nata- Gonxus, Lacep. and Schn. In the true Gobies the ventrals are united throughout their whole length and even before their base by a traverse, so as to form a l. 1 The body is elongated; head moderate and routlded; concave< 1s '-· cheeks inflated and the eyes approximated; two dorsal fins, the last of which is long. Several species inhabit the seas of Europe, whose characters are not yet sufficiently ascertained.(!) They prefer a clayey bottom, w~ere they excavate canals ~n which they pass the winter. In the sprmg they prepare a nest m some spot abounding with fucus, which they afterwards cover with roots of the Zostera; here the male remains shut up, and awaits the females who successively arrive to deposit their eggs; he fecun· dates tl~em, and exhibits much care and courage in defending and preserving them.(2) G. niger, L.; Penn., Brit. Zool. pl. 38. (The Common Goby.) Body blackish-brown; dorsals bordered with whitish; the most common species on the coast of Europe. The extremities of the superior rays of the pectorals are free; length, four or five inches. G. jozzo, Bl., 107, f. 3. (The Blue Goby.) . Brown, marbled with blackish; blackish fins; two white lines on the first dorsal, whose rays are prolonged in filaments above the membrane. G. minutus,L.; .!iphia, Penn. pl. 37. (The White Goby.) Body a pale fawn-colour; fins whitish, transversely marked with fawn· coloured lines: length, from two to three inches. The Mediterranean, which is perhaps inhabited by these three species, produces several others of different sizes and colours.(S) G. capito, Cuv .; Gesner, 396. (The Great Goby.) Olive, (1) Belon and Hondelet have endeavoured to prove that this fish is the Gobim of the ancients, and Artedi pretends to have found in the ocean the badly deter· mined Mediterranean species of those authors. Hence has arisen a most inextrica· ble confusion, to disentangle which, it is necessary to recommence both descrip· tions and figures, a task we shall partially undertake in our Icthyology. (2) These observations were made by the late Olivi, on a Goby of the canals of Venice, which he considers identical with the niger, but which is perhaps another of the numerous Mediterranean species; they are given by M. de :Martens in tb.e second volume of his Voy. to Venice, p. 419. My conclusion is, that the Goby.IS the Phycis of the ancients, " the only fish that constructs a nest,'' Arist. Hist., hb. VIII, cap. xx.x. (3) See the descriptions, but without wholly adopting the nomenclature of Risso, Icht. de Nice, p. 155, et seq. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 179 marbled with blackish; lines of blackish points on the fins; the head broad and the cheeks inflated; length one foot and more. G. cruentatus, Gmel. (The Bloody Go by.) Large; brown, marbled with grey and red; lips and operculum marbled with a blood-red; red lines on the first dorsal; lines of salient points forming an H on the nape of the neck, &c. Some species are also found in fresh water; such is the Gob. jluviatUis observed by Bonnelli in a lake in Piedmont, smaller than the niger, blackish, without the free pectoral filaments, and a black spot above the branchial aperture. A large one is obtained in the environs of Bologna, the G. lota, Cuv.; brown; blackish veins on the cheek; a little blackish spot on the base of the pectoral, and another on each side of that of the caudal. Among the Gobies foreign to Europe, we may observe the G. macrocephalus; Cottus macroceph,. Pall., Nov. Act. Petrop., I, pl. x, f. 4, 5, 6, on account of the extreme length of its head, and the G. lanceolatus, Bl., 33, 1; G. bato, Buch., pl. 37, f. 10; Eleotris lanceolata, Bl., Schn., pl. xv, which we call the Gobius elongatus, on account of their elongated form and pointed caudal.( I) The GoBIOIDES, Lacep. Only differ from the Gobies in the union of their dorsals, which form but one. Their body is more elongated.(2) The T JENIOIDES, Lacep. With the single dorsal of the Gobioides, have a still more elongated body. Their physiognomy is extremely singular; the upper jaw is very short, the lower, elevated and every where convex, ascends in front of it, both being armed with long hooked teeth; the eye is almost reduced to nothing, and is completely hidden under the skin. The cavity of the mouth is occupied by a fleshy and nearly globular tongue; some small cirri beneath the lower jaw. (1_) Among these species foreign to Europe we may unhesitatingly place the Go~w Plumietii, Bl. 175, 3;-G.lagocephalus, Pall. VIII, pl.ll, f. 6, 7;-G. Boda. ar:t, Id. lb. pl. 1, £ 5;-G. ocellaris, Brouss., Dec., pl. 11;-G. bose., Lacep. 11, XVI, 1, or G. viridi-pallidus, Mitch. op. cit. I, 8, or G. alepidotus, m., Schn .;G. Rutselii, Cuv., Russ. I, 53;-G. giwris, Buchan., pl. xxxiii, f.13; Huss. 1, 50;G. changua, Buch. pl. V, f. 10;-the Bostryche chinois, Lacep. II, xiv, and many new species to be described in our Hist. des Poissons. (2) Gob. BroU8sonTJ.et, Lacep. II, pl. xvii, f, 1, (Gob. oblongatus, Schn., add, 548). \ |