82 Mr. W. Yarrell on some Species of the Genus Syngnathus. 



British Fishes/ vol. ii. p. 335, under the name of S. cequoreus, 

 is the female ; and that the second example, figured at p. 338, 

 under the name of ;S^. Ophidion, is the male of the same species, 

 I was at once induced to suppose that M. Fries was under 

 some misapprehension on the subject, from the following cir- 

 cumstances ; first, because as far as my own observation went, 

 S. cequoreus was, in this country at least, a very rare species. 

 Montagu says that he obtained but two examples. At the 

 time of printing the account of that species in the ^ British 

 Fishes,' I possessed, as there stated, but two examples ; while 

 on the coast of Dorsetshire, where I have frequently fished 

 for ByngnatJii, I could obtain any number of that which I 

 had called S, Ophidion, and it is equally common elsewhere. 

 This extraordinary disparity of numbers appeared to be strong 

 ground, but not the only ground, for supposing them distinct 

 as to species. 



When in 1834 I first exhibited at the meetings of the Zo- 

 ological Society dissected specimens of males and females of 

 three species of the genus Syngnathus, in order to show the 

 peculiarities both of the marsupial and ophidial pipe-fish, I 

 had no difficulty in finding among my specimens females of 

 S. Ophidion of Bloch, and I insert here a paragraph from the 

 Report of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for Oct. 

 28, 1834, which follows a notice of the exhibition of prepara- 

 tions of males and females of Syngnathus Acus and Typhle. 

 '^ Specimens of males and females of S, Ophidion, Bloch, were 

 also exhibited. In this species neither male nor female pos- 

 sesses an anal pouch, but the ova are carried by the male in 

 hemispheric depressions on the external surface of the abdo- 

 men, anterior to the anus. All the specimens examined ha- 

 ving these external depressions proved to be males, with the 

 testes in the abdomen very obvious : those Avithout external 

 depressions proved to be all females, internally provided with 

 two lobes of enlarged ova." 



In reference to the recent observations of M. Fries I pur- 

 posely deferred any new examination of the various specimens 

 I possessed till Mr. Jenyns's visit to London in the early part 

 of the present month, when we made the inspection together. 

 I may here observe, that at the Meeting of the British Asso- 



