ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYNGNATIIUS ACUS. 105 



III. 



ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYNGNATHUS 



ACUS, LINN. 



BY W. ANDERSON SMITH. 



With one Plate [I]. 



[Read 26th April, 1887.] 



One of the most interesting of our families of fishes 

 is that of the Syngnathidce, and it has the further 

 advantage of belonging to an order readily procur- 

 able, not being at all pelagic in its ways, although 

 instances of its occurrence in quantity at sea have 

 been recorded. Anyone who has been in the habit 

 of frequenting the beach where Zostera marina 

 abounds, or wandering along the rocky shore at 

 low-tide and searching amongst the sea-ware, or 

 sitting in a small boat on a fine day in June or 

 July and peering down amongst the wealth of life 

 that haunts the foreshore, must have seen some 

 specimens of this so-called " sea-adder," our most 

 common species, Syngnathus acus, Linn. They may 

 be thrusting their long, woodcock-like snout slowly 

 and leisurely amongst the ware, their large simple 

 eyes looking upwards ; or they may be twined around 

 some sea-weed stem, with the strange head seeking 

 in a childish sort of way for the wherewithal to 

 sustain their existence, for they cannot be looked 

 upon as a remarkably wise family. They are by no 

 means a swift one ; and their continued existence in 

 comparative plenty may be mainly attributed to the 

 armour of tough chitinous plates, which completely 

 protects a body that, from a gastronomic point of 

 view, is unworthy of protection. Perhaps no class 

 of fishes has such strange relations at the present 



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