O SYNGNATHID.E. 



animal witliin a lengthened cleft or groove, formed in a ridge or prominence 

 along the tail beneath ; and it had naturally been assumed that this was the 

 office of the female fish.* It has, however, been clearly ascertained, in 

 certain species of the closely allied genus Syngnathus, the Pipe-fishes of 

 our English coasts, that the male fish is the careful egg-bearer and the hatcher 

 of his future progeny. This curious fact was first, in Britain, noticed by the 

 late John Walcott, Esq. author of several works on natural history ; but 

 remained unknown in his unpublished MSS. till recently brought forward 

 and confirmed by Mr. Yarrell.-f* On the Continent it seems in like manner 

 to have escaped general attention, though said to have been noticed by 

 Eckstrom, Retzius, and Marcklin ; and more lately by Agassiz.J Positive 

 observations are indeed still wanting to connect these curious habits with the 

 Hippocavipi ; but their close alliance with the Pipe-fishes in structure 

 makes agreement more than probable, it being actually ascertained in certain 

 Hippocampi that the ventral pouch is only present in the male.§ 



Little has been hitherto recorded of the other habits of the Hippocampi. 

 The observations of Mr. Lukis in " The British Fishes," regarding those of 

 movement in H. brevirostris, Cuv. confirmed by those hereafter to be men- 

 tioned of the subject of this Chapter, show a considerable deviation from the 

 usually abrupt and rapid motions of the ordinary fishes. This peculiarity 

 may be connected with the absence of a caudal fin ; and it would be inter- 

 esting to inquire whether a similar sluggishness of motion prevails amongst 

 that tail-less section or subgenus of Sy^ignathus, termed by Risso Sci/phius ; 

 to which belong the British species Sj/ttgnathus aquoreus, L. S. ophidian, 

 Bl. and S. lumhriciformis, Jen. in contrast with the true Syngnathi {^S. 

 Acus, Typhle, L. &c.) which are provided with a caudal fin. 



Not only in some points of structure, form, and colour, therefore, but 

 in habits, do the Syngiiathidoc seem to bear a remarkable analogy among 

 the fishes to the terrestrial reptiles ; the Syngnathi are the more active 

 kinds of Snake or Lizard ; the Hippocampi, and perhaps the Scyphii, 

 represent the tardigrade Chamseleon, or the sluggish Blindworm {Anguis 

 fragilis, L.) : whilst in all these fishes there is an evident approximation 

 to the more directly viviparous habits which prevail in certain reptiles. 



The chief distinctive characters of the family consist in the loricate or 

 cuirassed structure of the skin ; which is smooth, but divided into four- 

 sided compartments, like a coat of mail, and in the nature of the branchise ; 

 which, instead of exhibiting the usual pectinated structure, are collected 

 into little distinct crests {XoCpoi) or tufts, arranged in pairs along the 

 branchial arches. These fishes have no ccBca, but a large air-bladder. 



* See Linn. Ed. 12. i. 417, note. 



t See British Fishes, ii. 327— 3-2,9 ; and Proc. Zool. Soc. iii. 1835, p. 183. 



t See Proceed. Zool. Soc. ii. 1834, p. 118. § Sec Yarr. Brit. Fishes, ii. 345. 



