FISHES. 229 



immediately closing over them. " In the month of July, the 

 young are hatched and quit the pouch, but they follow their 

 father, and return for shelter into their nursery when danger 

 threatens."* 



"We have taken Pipe-fishes very abvmdantly bj^ means of a 

 small dredge towed over an expanse of mud-banks, thickly 

 covered with grass-wrack (Zostera). Here there were doubt- 

 less small moUusea in abundance, affording a kind of food well 

 adapted for the long tubular jaws of the Pipe-fishes. 



Anguillidce, the family of the Eels. — The pectoral fins in 

 fishes are the representatives of the members which we call 

 the arms in monkeys, and the wings in birds. The ventral 

 fins are, in like manner, regarded as the representatives of the 

 legs and feet. In the Eel tribe the ventral fins are wanting, 

 and hence the term Apodes, a word signifying " without feet," 

 has been applied to denote this peculiarity .f 



The two species of Sand-eels are alike in their habit of 

 bmying themselves in the moist sands of the sea-shore ; and 

 we can speak from experience of the fun, frolic, and activity 

 that prevailed when, on a summer night by a bright moon, 

 some of our meny school companions turned up the sand, 

 while others darted at each fish as it showed its silvery side 

 for a moment in the light and then disappeared. At Dundrum 

 Bay, County Down, and on other parts both of the Irish and 

 English coast, they are taken in such abundance as to consti- 

 tute a valuable article of food. The smaller and more common 

 species (Ammodytes Lancea) is usually from five to seven inches 

 in length, and offers a great contrast to another member of 

 the same fiimily, the Conger Eel of our coasts, which some- 

 times attains the weight of 100 or even 130 lbs., and measures 

 more than ten feet in length. + There is a notion yet current 

 that common Eels going into the sea remain there, and grow 

 into Congers : an idea as unfounded as that of the child who 

 supposes that ducks will grow into geese. The permanence 

 of species is a truth which increasing knowledge every day 

 confirms. 



Three species of freshwater Eels are described as British. 

 Some of these remain permanently throughout the year in 

 certain ponds or rivers, and there deposit their spawn j but 



• Owen's Lectures, p. 304. 



t The Order is named Malacopterygii Apodes. 



X Yarrell, ii. p. 306. 



