460 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxix. 



enemies, and accounts for this on the ground of their having a horn}^ 

 coat of mail. Another explanation for the pipefishes of Beaufort may 

 be found in the very peculiar and offensive odor of their skin and Hesh 

 After handling or dissecting them, one's hands become saturated with 

 a peculiar and pungent odor, very offensive and very hard to get 

 rid of. 



Duncker says the Lophobranchs feed on small Crustacea and the 

 young of their own species. Eckstroem says they eat the spawn of 

 other fishes. Yarrell, Couch, and others say that their food consists 

 of small crustaceans and larvte of various kinds. Microscopic exam- 

 ination of the intestinal contents of S. JJoridai shows its food to consist 

 of minute Crustacea and reveals the presence in some cases of a very 

 small tapeworm scolex. Specimens of various pipefishes have been 

 kept at Beaufort for weeks in aquaria with running water and have 

 seemed to thrive. In this connection Duncker is the first to explain 

 the curious snapping noise made by these fishes in feeding. All water 

 is expelled from the snout and pharynx by muscular action. Into the 

 vacuum thus formed, water and small Crustacea rush with the smack- 

 ing noise when the mouth is suddenly opened, a bird-like pecking 

 motion of the head accompanying it. 



Duncker says that at the breeding season the dorsal part of the 

 pouch becomes much swollen and vascularized; that an epithelial 

 cement binds the lips of the pouch fast (in this he anticipates Huot 

 and also Cohn); that the eggs go through their whole development 

 without ever coming in contact with the water; and, finally, that the 

 embryos are bathed in the blood of the father. In short, he thinks 

 this pouch a phj^siological uterus-placenta. 



The Qg^ laying, he avers, takes place at night or earl}^ in the morn- 

 ing, which is true of 8. fioridse; and the filling of the pouch takes 

 place from before backward, from behind forward, or from the 

 middle in both directions, whereas in S. fiorldx it is only from before 

 backward. He further says that the development of the eggs takes 

 place unequally rapidly (true of S. forahv)., and that at the end of 

 about twenty days the foremost ones slip out, and, finally, that when 

 hatched the young are deserted by their parents. In the Nerophiens, 

 Duncker says that the females have sexual coloration at the breeding 

 season and that they approach the males. 



In 1902, Huot published the best and most comprehensive paper ever 

 written on the Lophobranchs. He is ignorant of the work of Lafont, 

 Dufosse, and Fanzago, for he says that the transfer has never been 

 observed. He finds the eggs in the marsupium of a male about equal 

 in numlxu- to those in the ovar}' of a female of the same size. In 

 X. _//r/yvV/rT, transfer has never been observed to take place in specially 

 paired fishes unless they are of approximately the same size. 



Huot figures, in sections through the pouch, the external epidermis 



