328 THE SEA SHORE 



on either side above the pectorals, and a dark lateral line. The 

 family also includes the Ling (Molva vulgaris) and the Hake 

 (Merluccius vulgaris), both of which are caught in deep water ; 

 and the Bocklings (genus Motella), three species of which frequent 

 our rocky shores. 



The last mentioned are interesting little fishes that may be 

 found on stony beaches at low tide, for they often remain under 

 cover between the tide-marks, and may be seen on turning over 

 stones and weeds. Perhaps the commonest of them is the Five- 

 bearded Eockling (M. mustela), which has four barbels on the upper 

 lip and one on the lower. It is of a dark-brown colour above, and 

 light below, and makes nests of corallines in rock cavities. The 

 Three-bearded Eockling (M. tricirrliata), known also as the Sea 

 Loach and the Whistle-fish, is a larger species, sometimes reaching 

 a length of a foot or more. Its colour is light brown, marked with 

 darker spots, and, like the other species, it lives in the shallow 



FIG. 235. THE SNAKE PIPE-FISH 



water of rocky and weedy places. Another species the Four- 

 bearded Rockling (M. cimbria), known by the three barbels on the 

 upper lip and one on the lower, is about eight inches long when 

 full grown, and is found principally on the northern shores. 



Our next family (Syngnathidce) contains some peculiar creatures 

 called Pipe-fishes because their jaws are united into a tube. They 

 have long and slender bodies that are covered with bony plates 

 which form a kind of coat of mail and give them an angular form. 

 They have very small gill-openings, a single dorsal fin, and no 

 pel vies. 



Pipe-fishes are very sluggish in habit, swimming but little, and 

 living in the shelter of weeds and stones on rocky coasts. In fact, 

 they are not adapted for swimming, and their attempts at this 

 mode of locomotion are awkward in the extreme, for their bodies 

 are rigid and the tail very small. When removed from their hiding- 

 places they move but little, and look as much like pieces of brown 



