THE SEA-HORSE. 233 
fish. The strong spine cannot be forced down till the small one 
has been first depressed and the catch disengaged. 
The Plectognaths are mostly denizens of the warmer seas, 
but the pig-faced trigger-fish of the Mediterranean (Balistes 
capriscus) has been caught three times in the British waters 
since 1827, and the short sun-fish or molebut, though occur- 
ring but occasionally, may be said to have been taken from 
John o’ Groat’s to the Land’s End. It grows to an immense 
size, often attaining the diameter of four feet, sometimes even 
double that size, and occasionally weighing from 300 to 500 
pounds. When observed in our seas, the sun-fishes have gene- 
rally appeared as though they were dead or dying, floating 
lazily along on one side and making little or no attempt to 
escape. It is to be presumed that in more congenial waters 
they evince a greater degree of liveliness. 
The order of the Lophobranchii is in many respects too 
curious and interesting to be passed over in silence. Here the 
gills, instead of being as usual ranged like the teeth of a comb, 
are clustered into small filamentous tufts placed by pairs along 
the branchial arches; the face projects into a long tubular 
snout, having the mouth either at its extremity, as in the Hip- 
pocampus and in the Pipe-fishes, or at its base, as in the Pegasus 
of the Indian seas; and the body is covered with shields or 
small plates, which often give it an angular form, and encase it 
as it were in jointed armour. But the most interesting feature 
of their economy is the pouches in which the males of the 
most characteristic genera carry the eggs until they are hatched. 
In the hippocampi this provision for the safety of the future 
generation, which strongly reminds one of the kangaroo or the 
opossum, forms a perfect sack, opening at its commencement 
only; in the pipe fishes it is closed along its whole length by 
two soft flaps folding over each other. Another peculiarity of 
these interesting little fishes is the independent motion of their 
eyes, the one glancing hither and thither while its fellow remains 
motionless, or looks in different directions. This phenomenon 
of double vision, which was long supposed to be peculiar to the 
chameleon, is, however, not confined to this singular reptile or 
to the hippocampi and pipe-fishes, but has been found by 
Mr. Gosse to exist likewise in the Little Weever (7rachinus 
vipera), inthe Suckers (Lepidogastri), a small family remarkable 
