THE PIPE-FISHES. 543 



Parson's share of the spoil, amounting to six barrels of 

 dried fish. The breast, or centre of the nets, consists, 

 Professor Sundevall tells us, of a white sheet, the bright- 

 ness reflected from which, by the rays of the sun, opposite 

 whereto it is always placed, attracts the Launces within 

 the toils ; and when the net has been drawn near the 

 shore, and the fish begin to bury themselves in the sand, 

 they are routed from thence by a sort of rake. Those 

 captured are for the most part dried, and stored away for 

 winter provender. 



The Great Pipe-Fish (Stor Kant-Nal, or great-edged 

 needle ; Stor Tang-Naal, or great fucus-needle, Dan. ; 

 Syngnathus Acus, Linn.) has not hitherto been found either 

 in the Baltic, or on the western coast of Sweden. So at 

 least we are told by Nilsson, but Kroyer assures us it is 

 occasionally captured both in the Cattegat and the Sound. 

 Be this as it may, both of the above-named authors agree 

 in saying it is not uncommon on the western coast of 

 Korway, as high up as Bergen, or even Drontheim (Krdyer). 

 Its usual size is from twelve to sixteen inches, but it 

 attains to eighteen. 



The peculiar formation of the sexual organs of this 

 fish, and others of the family, and the manner in which 

 the ova of the females are fructified, had for ages been a 

 puzzle to the learned, but at length Yarrell, on the 

 authority of the late Mr. Walcott, cleared up the mystery 

 in " British Pishes," wherein he says : " The male differs 

 from the female in the belly from the vent to the tail fin 

 being much broader, and in having for about two-thirds 

 of its length two soft flaps, which fold together and form 

 a false belly (or pouch). They breed in the summer ; 

 the females casting their roe into the false belly of the 

 male." Prior, however, to this singular fact having been 

 communicated to the English public, Ekstrotn (when 

 speaking of the S. Typlde, of which presently), had, in 



