M. Fries on the Genm Syngnathus. 99 



arc found ; one green with yellow spots and the belly passing 

 into a brass yellow, the other olive brown sprinkled with a 

 quantity of white spots and markings, with whitish belly. These 

 two are also not constant, but between both are a series of 

 transitions. They stand in no definite relation to age or sex." 



II. Ophidial Pipe-fish. 

 If the Swedish Ichthyologists have been guilty of a confu- 

 sion of names in the other division, the English authors on 

 the other hand have confounded in a remarkable way the spe- 

 cies belonging to this division. Our Fauna has hitherto con- 

 tained only one species, S. Ophidion, while the British Fauna 

 has three, cequoreus, Ophidion, and lumbriciformis. However, 

 so far from these names having designated one and the same 

 species with all authors, we here find a great confusion. As 

 late observations have shown that the three species occur on 

 our coasts, I find myself enabled to trace the origin of these 

 errors. With respect to our Ophidion, we should least of 

 all expect to find this name in the English Fauna desig- 

 nating quite a different species from the one so called by 

 us, as this appears to be the most rare which occur on the 

 English coasts, and as Englishmen have paid little or no at- 

 tention to the descriptions of Artedi, but have held to the 

 short specific characters of Linnaeus ; and these proving to be 

 nsufficient, sought explanation in Bloch, who has been espe- 

 cially unfortunate in the determination of the species of Syn- 

 gnathus. That however which was not to be supposed has 

 really happened ; in the most recent works treating of the 

 British fish the name of Ophidion is reserved to designate 

 merely the one sew of the most remarkable species of this sub- 

 division, while the other sex is received under the right name 

 S. cequoreus. Thus we find in Jenyns's e Manual of Brit. Verteb. 

 Animals/ as also in YarrelPs 'Hist, of Brit. Fish/ both describe 

 rightly the female as S. cequoreus, Linn., but call the male S. 

 Ophidion, Bloch. I will certainly not maintain that Bloch 

 under his Ophidion may not at the same time have included 

 cequoreus ; on the contrary, I rather consider Bloch's Ophidion 

 to be synonymous with the whole subdivision, for the descrip- 

 tion may be applied partly to the one, partly to the other spe- 



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