March 1, 1866.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



51 



as, in habit, all the family are very alike. I have 

 often found them lurking under seaweed at low 

 water on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, but in 

 vast abundance in the snug bays round A r ancouver 

 Island. 



Next to the mouth, an important structural 

 difference to ordinary fishes will be found in the 

 arrangement of the gills. If you lift the gill-cover, 

 and examine any of the edible fish usually sold, you 

 wdl see the gills are pectinated, or arranged like 

 the teeth in a comb, whereas in our friends the 

 pipe-fishes the breathing apparatus assumes a tufted 

 form ; hence the sub-order, including only this single 

 family, is named Lophobranchia (Gr. lophos, a tuft ; 

 brancJiia, gills). The body is encased in a kind of 

 laminated armour, permitting great freedom of 

 motion ; each plate, if examined closely, will be seen 

 to radiate in striae from the centre. The fins are 

 small, and the tail rounded. 



The male differs in a most remarkable manner 

 from the female. Mr. Walcott tells us, in his 

 " Manuscript of British Fishes," that in the male, 

 the belly has for about two-thirds of its length two 

 soft flaps, which fold together and form a pouch. 

 Now the oddity of the pipe-fish consists in the male 

 receiving the eggs of the female as they are laid, 

 packing them safely away in this skin-bag, and 

 taking the entire charge of them until they are 

 hatched. Quoting from Yarr ell's " British Pishes," 

 "The sub -caudal pouch is peculiar to the males 

 only, and is closed by two elongated lateral flaps •. 

 on separating these flaps and expanding the inside, 

 the ova, large and yellow, were seen lining the 

 pouch. In each of these, the opened abdomen 

 exhibited true male organs." Mr. Walcott also 

 further writes, " They breed in summer, the females 

 casting their roe into the false belly of the male." 



The way this singular transfer of a numerous 

 family to the unlucky papa takes place (the mamma 

 being at liberty to flirt or enjoy herself in any way 

 she deems best befitting her tastes and inclinations, 

 utterly reckless of all maternal duties), has been 

 described by Mr. Andrews : — 



" In shoal water, or at a low tide, these fish may 

 sometimes be seen in pairs, side by side, apparently 

 stationary on some rocky stone. At this time the 

 ova— the Capsules but imperfectly matured— are 

 liberated from the female and received into the 

 abdominal sac of the male, the male fish having the 

 power of expanding the lappings of the sac, and 

 attaching the ova by a highly viscid or glutinous 

 secretion; in time, as the process of maturation 

 advances, the capsules of the ova enlarge, forming 

 hemispherical depressions in the sac, and eventually 

 the pouch is forced open by the full development of 

 the ova and extrication of the young."* 



* Nat. Hist. Review, vol. vii. I860, p. 397. 



At Vancouver Island there are several species of 

 pipe-fish very nearly allied to those of our own seas, 

 but much larger in size. In the hot summer days, 

 when tired of scrambling over slippery rocks, search- 

 ing pools, picking shells, and capturing captives 

 that ought to have " gone out with the tide," I 

 have laid on a smooth rock, overhanging some sandy 

 sheltered little bay, and gazed into the clear salt 

 water to watch the strange assemblage of living 

 cimos that elbow — perhaps fin is the better word — 

 each other in these sea gardens, seldom did I fail to 

 see a pair or two of pipe-fishes busy at the family 

 transference. 



A kind of sea- wrack grows everywhere along the 

 north-west coast like a sub-marine forest ; a straight 

 stalk rising through the water spreads out two 

 loug plantain-shaped leaves, that float like ribbons 

 on the surface : apparently hooked on by their tails, 

 that seem to be bent round the sea-trees, side by side, 

 are Mr. and Mrs. Pipe-fish. How the eggs are con- 

 veyed into the false pouch of the male, without 

 being dropped into the water, I am unable to say, 

 except by absolute contact, the eggs are glued, so 

 to speak, to the inside of the receiving sac ; the 

 slightest disturbance puts an end to the work, even 

 a breeze of wind rippling the water sends husbaud 

 and wife to some secure hiding-place. I feel quite 

 sure the lady pipe-fishes are not the least particular 

 in the choice of a papa ; if he has an empty quiver, 

 they are quite ready to yield all or any part of 

 their family to his paternal guardianship; thus it 

 happens, if frequently disturbed, the ova of a fe- 

 male often gets distributed amongst four or five 

 males. 



The accommodating papa pipe-fish does not get 

 quit of his numerous children as soon as they are 

 hatched, accordiug to the usages of fish society in 

 higher circles, where both parents, without a pang 

 of regret, march off, leaving their eggs to take care 

 of themselves ; but it is positively affirmed by many 

 able observers, that the young, when hatched, quit 

 the pouch to make pleasant little excursions round 

 their "daddy," and on the slightest danger, dash 

 with all speed into their sac shelter, huddle 

 together, and, I dare say, play all manner of infan- 

 tile pranks. Mr. Yarrell says, if you shake the 

 tiny fellows out of the pouch into the water, they 

 do not swim away, but return again, if the parent fish 

 is held in a favourable position. To the truth of 

 this I can bear testimony ; you can perform the feat 

 any day in a sea-pool at Vancouver Island. The 

 exact time they remain with the parent fish I do 

 not know, as they return into deep water prior to 

 the young leaving them. Neither, as far as I am 

 aware, is it known how long the ova are hatching 

 in the male sac. 



This singular appendage varies greatly in its 

 structural form in different species. Iu the Hippo- 

 campus., or Sea-horse as it is usually styled (which 



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