SYNGNATHUS.] PISCES (OSSEI) OSTEODERMI. 487 



{Colours.) "Yellowish, with transverse pale lines, with dark margins, 

 one in each joint, and another down the middle of each plate, giving it 

 the appearance of possessing double the number of joints it really has : 

 these markings, however, cease just beyond the vent." MONT. 



This species, which had been previously observed by Sibbald in the 

 Frith of Forth, was obtained by Montagu at Salcomb, in 1807. A second 

 specimen, he mentions, was afterwards picked up on the same coast. 

 That from which the above description was taken was procured in Ber- 

 wick Bay by Dr. Johnston : it is now in the collection of W. Yarrell, Esq. 



175. S. Ophidion, Bloch. (Snake Pipe-Fish.) Body 

 round, very obsoletely octangular anteriorly : snout short ; 

 much narrower, vertically, than the head : dorsal and vent 

 considerably before the middle of the entire length. 



S. Ophidion, Bloch, Ichth. pi. 91. f. 3. Gmel. Linn. torn. i. part iii. 

 p. 1456.? S. anguineus, Jen. Cat. of Brit. Vert. An. 30. sp. 176. 

 Snake Pipe-Fish, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. v. part ii. p. 453. pi. 179. 

 (Copied from Bloch.) Longer Pipe-Fish, Low, Faun. Ore. p. 179. 



LENGTH. From twelve to fourteen inches. According to Bloch, from 

 one to two feet. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Very similar to the last species, but more slender 

 and tapering in proportion to its length: anterior part of the body scarcely 

 thicker than a goose-quill, presenting the same angles as the S. cequoreus, 

 but with these angles so ill-defined arid obsolete, as to appear on the whole 

 nearly round ; beyond the vent the body is obsoletely quadrangular, be- 

 coming quite round near the extremity of the tail, the tip of which is 

 compressed into a very minute rudimentary caudal fin : transverse shields 

 on the trunk not separated by any well-marked lines, so as scarcely to 

 admit of being counted : head one-twelfth of the entire length, similar, 

 as is also the snout, to that of the S. cequoreus : dorsal much forwarder 

 than in that species, entirely before the middle ; the distance from the 

 last ray to the end of the tail more than half as long again as that from 

 the end of the snout to the commencement of the fin : vent considerably 

 before the middle of the entire length, but in relation to the dorsal situate 

 as in the S. cequoreus, three-fourths of that fin lying in advance of it : 

 rays of the caudal too minute and obsolete to be distinguished. 



D. 38; A. 0; C. ? ; P.O. 



(Colour of a specimen in spirits.) Of a uniform yellowish brown, paler 

 beneath : no indication of the transverse bands which appear in the last 

 species. 



This species, which has evidently been confounded with the next by 

 many authors *, I have, since the publication of my Catalogue, ascer- 

 tained to be the true S. Ophidion of Bloch, and probably of Gmelin, but 

 whether of Linnaeus also is doubtful, as his very concise description ap- 

 plies nearly equally well to both. It is closely allied to the -S. cequoreus, 

 from which it scarcely differs, excepting in its slenderer and rounder 

 form, and much forwarder position of the dorsal and vent. It is indeed 

 with this last species, that it has probably been confounded by Low, under 



* Montagu was the first to point out the great discrepancies which appear in the different 

 figures and descriptions given by different authors of S. Ophidion, and it is entirely owing to his 

 observations on this subject, that I was led to detect the existence of another species. See Worn. 

 Man. vol. i. p. 89. 



