228 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



the capture of one in the Esk, weighing 464 lbs. In the nor- 

 thern parts of Europe, where the fish is more abundant, caviare 

 is made of the roe of the female, and isinglass from the dense 

 membrane forming the air-bladder. 



OSSEOUS nSHES, 

 WITH THE EAYS OF THE FINS FLEXIBLE. 



" Our plenteous streams a various race supply, 

 The bright-eyed Perch, with fins of Tyrian dye, 

 The Silver Eel, in shining volumes roll'd, 

 The Yellow Carp, in scales bedrop'd with gold, 

 Swift Trouts, diversified with crimson stains. 

 And I'ikes, the tyrants of the watery plains." — Pope. 



Hating already noticed the Globe-fish {Fig. 179) and the 

 Trunk fish {Fig. 180), which are members of a group con- 

 nected by some points of structure with the osseous,* and by 

 others with the cartilaginous fishes, we proceed to a small but 

 interesting order {Lophohranchii) in which 

 the gills are arranged like little tufts. To 

 this belongs the Hippocampus or Sea-horse 

 {Fig. 199), and the Pipe-fishes {Syngnathidce), 

 one of which has been noticed in connexion 

 with its powers of movement (p. 206). This 

 species is the largest of our native Pipe-fishes 

 (S. acus, Fig. 182), and is furnished with a 

 marsupial pouch. The idea of such a pouch 

 is connected with that of the female. We 

 know that it is thus the female Kangaroo car- 

 Fig. 199. j.jgg ^j^^i protects her young ; but in natural his- 



HlPPOCAMPDS. . ^ r- "^ .? ' , . 



tory we are tor ever meetmg such strange oc- 

 currences, that it has been well said, " the naturalist has no need 

 to invent ; Nature romances it for him." In the Pipe-fish, con- 

 trary to what we find in other tribes of animals, the marsupial 

 pouch belongs to the male. The sexes come together in the 

 month of April; the ova pass from the female and are transferred 

 into the sub -caudal pouch of the male, the valves of the pouch 



* Tliey belong to the order Pkctognathi, of Cuvier, characteiized by hav- 

 ing the jaws as if soldered together. 



