STHAUillT-No.SEl) I'll'El-ISII. 



683 



still more donuated, the jieetoral lins are eoiaparatixcly 

 larf,'er, the still rudimentary dorsal liu is hardly so 

 advaiieed in dewlopnuMit, and the emhryonie vertical 

 fin of tlu' tail, though it is distinct in some of those 



til 



The food <if llie J!i|Uoreal Pi|)etish is jirohahly 

 same as llmt of the other Symjnathince. Still, to 



tile best of our knowledge, we have no other direct 

 information on this point than that Andrews (1. c.) 



embryos preserved in sj>irits, in others is indistinct, \ has seen these fishes stripping the stems of Zostera 



because it is (hither shrivelled u]:>, or as yet undeveloped. \ iiitiriiia of the young of AntJiea cereus, which were 



I have not sneeeeded in discovering the least trace of attached in a semiglutinous state. 

 the future caudal tin. 



THE STRAIGHT-NOSED PIPEFISH (sw. T.VN(;sxn\vN). 



XEROPHIS OPHIDION. 



Fig. 174 niul PhUe XXIX, fig. .3. 



Cauda] fin ivantiiig. Vent situated beloir the aiiferior part of the dorsal fi)i, the distance between which and the 

 tip of the siioaf is more than DO % {D.:> %?) oj that lirlireen the rent and the same j^oint and more tha)i 7 {7'^ I J) 



times the Icnc/th if the head. 



Fig. 174. Head lUuJ forepart of a Xeropliis Ojihidion ($) from Morkfi (C. U. Ekstku.m), twice llje natiual size. 



/). 34—40; Ann. 00—100 = (29—3.3) + .;■. 



Syn. Si/iignattiiM teres, pinnis pectoralibiis caiida;qiie carens, Art., 

 Deicr. A'pec. Pise, p. 1 (excl. syn.); Li.n'., Fn. Suec, ed. 

 I, p. 126. 



iSi/iiijnatlius Ophidion, Li.v., Sy.st. Nat., ed. X, torn. I, p. 

 337; Retz. A. J., Fn. Suec. Lin., p. 312: Ekstr., Vet. 

 Akad. Handl. 1831, p. 280, tab. II, figg. 3 et 4; NiLSS., 

 Prodi: Icltlh. 6'cand., p. 67; Retz. A., Vet. Akad. Handl. 

 1833, p. 157, tab. V; Fr., ibid. 1837, p. 36, tab. Ill, fig. 4; 

 Yarr., Brit. Fish., ed. 1, Suppl., part. II, p. 47; Kr. (Nei- 

 opltis). Damn. Fislc., vol. Ill, p. 716; NiLSS. (Scypliiiis), 

 Skand. Fn., Fislc., p. 694; Sundev. (Syngnatlius), Btockh. 

 L. Hush. Sallsk. Haudl., H. 6 (1855), p. 164; Mgrn, (Nero- 

 pliis), Finl. Fislcfn. (disp. Helsingf.), p. 70; Lindstr., iScy- 

 pliius), Gotl. L. Hush. Sallsk. Arsber. 1866, p. 24 (sep.); 

 Gthr (Nerophis), Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. VIII, p. 192; 

 DOm., Hist. Nat. Poiss., torn. II, p. 602; C.\nestr., Fn. 

 D'ftal., Pesci, p. 145; Coll., Forli. Vid. Selsk. Clirnia 1874, 

 TilliBgsh., p. 202; ibid. 1879, Xo. 1, p. 101; X. Mag. 

 Natiirv. Chrnia, Bd. 29, p. 114; M.\LM (Scyphins), Gbys., 

 Boh. Fn., p. 597 : Winth. {Nerophis) Naturh. Tidskr. Klihvn, 

 ser. 3, vol. XII, p. 54; Bncke (Syngnatlms), Fisch., Fischer., 

 Fisch;. W., 0. Preuss., p. 190; BcKE (Nerophis), Arcli. Na- 

 tnrg., Jabrg. 46(1880), I, p. 335; MoR., Hist. Nat. Poiss. 

 Fr., toni. II, p. 68; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., Irel., vol. II, p. 

 262, tab. CXLIV, fig. 5 ; Storm, N. Vid. Selsk. Skr., Trondbj. 

 1883, p. 42; Mob., Hoke, Fisch. Osts., p. 104; Ulu., Sc, 

 Norg. Fislc., vol. Ill, p. 470. 



Syngnathus lumbriciformis, Jen., Man. Brit. Vert. Anim., p. 

 488. 



The Straight-nosed Pipefish never attains so great 

 a size as the preceding species; even 3 dm. is quite a 

 consideral)le length for it, and though the females may 

 exceed this measurement by soine millimetres, it is im- 

 probable, on the other hand, that the males ever attain 

 it. The largest male we have had the opportunity of 

 examining (from Nor^vay, through Marklin), is 2^2 

 dm. long". 



The form of the body is still more elongated than 

 in the preceding species, and its greatest depth, even in 

 the females (excluding their vertical dermal carinae), 

 does not exceed 2 %'' of its length, while in the males 

 this percentage is between V/o and 1" .j. At the be- 

 ginning of the tail (the anal ring), here as in the pre- 

 ceding species, we find a sharp break, at which the 

 depth of the body in the young specimens and the fe- 

 males measures only about l"! % of its length, in the 

 older males 1'2 % thereof, and from which the tail 

 gradually tapers backwards almost to a filament. Both 

 in the females and the males the tail is terete (of cir- 

 cular section); and in the latter the breadth of the 

 trunk may be even greater than its depth, though as 

 a rule the case is the reverse; but in the older females 



° The largest male from Morko presented to the Royal Miisemn by Ekstro.m is 197 mni. long. 

 ' The highest percentage we have found is 19. 



