THE SUCKER. 109 



PIPEFISHES. 



The Pipefishes are rather miintere sting tenants of 

 an Aquarium ; their fins are small and of little power : 

 hence their motions are ordinarily slow. They hang 

 about in all attitudes, of which the perpendicular, either 

 with the head upward or downward, is a favom'ite one. 

 I have a very young specimen of the Great Pipe {Syn- 

 gnatlius acus), a half grown Deep-nose {S. typlile)^ 

 and a rather large jEquoreal {8. cequoreus)^ about 

 fifteen inches long. This last is slow and miwieldy, 

 possessing no fin but the dorsal ; while the former two 

 have tiny pectorals which are fluttered with a rapid 

 vibration, and a small fan-like cau.dal. All the species 

 flutter the delicate and filmy dorsal fin, at intervals, 

 though but little effect can be produced by such an 

 organ in locomotion. 



THE TWO-SPOTTED SUCKEE. 



The di-edge frequently brings up specimens of a 

 pretty little fish adhering to the interior of old bivalve 

 shells, or to stones. It is the Two-spotted Sucker 

 [Lepidog aster hi'macidafus) , which owes its generic 

 name to the circumstance of the ventral fins being 

 united into a concave disk, by the application of which 

 to any smooth surface, and the muscular withdrawal 

 of the central parts, producing a vacuum, the animal 

 adheres with considerable force ; exactly on the princi- 

 ple of those suckers that children make of a piece of 

 wetted leather at the end of a string. The little fish 

 is not more than two inches long, somewhat tadpole- 

 shaped, but prettily colom-ed of a pale crimson or 



