486 PISCES (OSSEI) OSTEODERMI. [SYNGNATHUS. 



Found in the same situations as the last species, and equally, if not 

 more, common. Obs. I feel some hesitation in considering the S. Typhle of 

 Bloch to be the same as that of English authors. His figure, as Donovan 

 has observed, resembles more nearly the S. Acus in a young state. 



(34.) S. pelagicus, Don. Brit. Fish. vol. in. pi. 58. Turt. Brit. 

 Faun. p. 117. Flem. Brit. An. p. 176, 



I very much doubt whether this supposed species be any thing more 

 than the young of S. Acus. During a stay at East Bourne, in Sept. 1833, 1 

 obtained three specimens, taken in the shrimp-nets at that place, which 

 appeared exactly to coincide with Donovan's figure, but which, I am 

 tolerably satisfied, are only what I have stated above. Two of these were 

 females, and possessed an extremely minute anal fin ; but the third, which 

 was a male, exhibited no vestige of it whatever, even when examined care- 

 fully with a lens. In this last individual, though measuring only three 

 inches and a half in length, the caudal pouch was full of newly-hatched 

 young. What the S. pelagicus of Linnaeus may be, I do not pretend 

 to say. 



* Anal and pectoral Jins wanting ; caudal obsolete. 



174. S. cequoreus, Linn. (JEquoreal Pipe-Fish.) 

 Body octangular anteriorly : snout short ; much narrower, 

 vertically, than the head: dorsal and vent nearly in the 

 middle of the entire length. 



S. sequoreus, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 417. Mont, in Wern. 

 Mem. vol.i. p. 85. pi. 4. f. 1. Flem. Brit. An. p. 176. Acus 

 nostras cauda serpentina, Sibb. Scot. Ittusi. part ii. torn. n. p. 24. 

 tab. 19. JEquoreal Pipe-Fish, Penn. Brit. Zool. (Edit. 1812.) 

 vol. in. p. 188. 



LENGTH. From twenty to twenty-four inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Readily distinguished from both the foregoing- 

 species by the want of the pectoral and anal fins. Form slender, and 

 very much elongated : body compressed, with an acute dorsal and ab- 

 dominal ridge; also with three slight ridges on each side; hence the 

 trunk from the gills to the vent is octangular; the tail is obsoletely 

 quadrangular, becoming almost round towards the tip, which is ex- 

 tremely tapering: transverse shields or plates, between the gills and 

 the vent, twenty-eight in number; from the vent to the extremity of 

 the tail, sixty or more (Montagu says about sixty-six), but, from the 

 extreme minuteness of the last few, not admitting of being counted with 

 exactness : head not more than one-twelfth of the entire length; without 

 any elevated ridge on the occiput : snout narrower than the head, similar 

 in shape to that of Acus, but much shorter in relation to the entire 

 length of the fish: dorsal occupying nearly a middle position in the 

 entire length; the distance from the last ray to the end of the tail at 

 the same time a little exceeding that from the end of the snout to the 

 commencement of the fin : vent a very little before the middle, being 

 nearly in a vertical line with the commencement of the last quarter of 

 the dorsal fin : tail compressed at the extremity, showing a very small 

 rudimentary caudal fin ; the rays however so obsolete, and so much enve- 

 loped in the common skin, as to be scarcely distinguishable. 



D. about 10 ; A. ; C. ? ; P. 0. 



