SKETCHES OP BRITISH ICHTHYOLOGY. 280l' 



1. The Great Pipe-Fish,—* S'. acus, — rAiguille. — The tubular 

 jaws of this species are slightly compressed ; and, in depth, but one 

 third of that of the head at its deepest part, which is in a vertical 

 line wfth the centre of the operculum, or gill-cover. The mouth, 

 placed at the extremity of the tube, is small, and opens obliquely 

 upwards. The lower jaw is longest. The eyes are large, and the 

 bony orbits prominent. The operculum exhibits radiating striae. 

 The head, between the eyes, is flattened j and behind them, rises 

 into a keel-like crest extending to the neck. From the pectoral fin 

 to the anal aperture, or vent, the body is seven-angled ; as there are 

 three ridges on each side, and one along the abdomen, terminating 

 at the vent. The surface is protected by a series of nineteen plates. 

 Throughout the short extent of the dorsal fin, the body is hexangu- 

 lar (six-angled) ; the abdominal ridge being discontinued : after- 

 wards, it is quadrangular, and tapers gradually, invested with forty- 

 four plates, to the end of the tail. The pectoral fin consists of 

 twelve rays : the dorsal, of forty rays, begins at two-fifths of the 

 length of the body, and, in a vertical line, somewhat anteriorly to 

 the anal aperture : the anal fin, of four rays, is very small : the cau- 

 dal, of ten rays, rounded and fan-shaped. The prevailing colour of 

 the fish is pale-brown, transversely barred with darker brown. Such 

 are the principal specific characters of aS'. acus, as delineated by Mr. 

 Yarrell, in the second vol., p. 330, of his admirable History of Bri- 

 tish Fishes. To the extraordinary uses of the sub-caudal pouch, pe- 

 culiar to the male fishes of this sub-genus, we shall presently advert. 



The motions of the Great Pipe-fish are very singular : they are 

 performed horizontally, or perpendicularly with the head down- 

 wards or upwards, in every variety of contortion, in search of food, 

 which consists of worms, and minute Mollusca, and Crustacea, and 

 the ova of other fishes. It is a common species, found either among 

 sea- weed on the recess of the tide, or in deep water. Figures of S. 

 acus are given by Willughby, Ichthi/ographia, pi. i. 25, f. 6 ; Pen- 

 nant, British Zoology, vol. iii., pi. 26, No. 60 (f. 1. a female, 2. a 

 male) ; Bonnaterre, Ichthyologie, pi. 21, f. 71 ; and Yarrell, History of 

 British Fishes, vol. ii., page 325. 



2. The Deep-nosed, Shorter, or Lesser Pipe-fish, — S, Typhle, — < 

 la Trompette, — is distinguishable from the preceding by the more 

 compressed and deeper figure of the jaws ; and from the two larger 

 species of the next Sub-genus, by the presence of pectoral, anal, and 

 caudal fins. The united jaws are nearly as deep as the head. The 

 body is hexangular, and the middle lateral angle, on each side, be- 

 comes, at the end of the dorsal fin, the upper angle of the quadran- 



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