351 



SYXGN'ATHTJS. 



In addition to the general characters of the family given above, this 

 genus has an elongated bodj^; pectoral, dorsal, and caudal fin, and a 

 slight anal or ventral; in the male a pouch behind the vent, marked 

 by a longitudinal slit. 



GREATER PIPEFISH. 



GREATER SEA ADDER. 



Sijngnnilius acus, Linn^tts. Ouvier. 



" Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 175. 



" Jenyns; Manual, p. 481. 



" " Yarrell ; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 433. 



Eondeletius gives characteristic likenesses of S. acus and also of S. 



The singular conformation of these fishes, with some peculiar- 

 ities of their habits, and especially their manner of producing 

 their young, have been noticed from remote ages; but of the 

 particulars of the last-named proceeding the most erroneous 

 opinions continued to be held to a very recent date. The 

 naturalist Pallas ventured the opinion that each individual was 

 possessed of a community of sexes; and in Schneider's edition 

 of the remains of Bloch, he arrives at the conclusion that all 

 the individual examples known were females; so that the males 

 of the present species and, we suppose, of the Avide-nosed, next 

 to be described, were yet to be discovered. But a generally 

 received idea among naturalists was the pardonable one of the 

 confounding one sex with the other: to which was added a 

 large amount of uncertainty as regarded the actual proceeding 

 in the evolution of the young. 



Aristotle had observed of the fish which he called Belone, 

 that there was a cavity on the lower part of the body behind 



