488 PISCES (OSSEI) OSTEODERMI. [SYNGNATHUS. 



the name of Longer Pipe-Fish, part of whose description, borrowed from 

 Sibbald and Pennant, does not belong to it: the proportions, however, 

 which Low assigns to his own specimens, convince me that this is the 

 species which had occurred to himself, and, according to his own account, 

 in great plenty. The only specimens which I have seen, amounting, 

 however, to several, are in the collection of W. Yarrell, Esq. I am 

 ignorant as to the locality whence they were obtained. 



(35.) Longer Pipe-Fish, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. p. 138. pi. 23. 

 no. 61. Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 184. pi. 26. no. 61. Syngna- 

 thus barbarus, Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 117. Flem. Brit. An. p. 176. 



I consider this as a very doubtful species. The figure, in which there is 

 neither anal nor pectoral fins, approaches so closely the S. tequoreus, that 

 I feel confident it was taken either from that species, or the S. Ophidian 

 last described. In the description, however, mention is made both of anal 

 and pectorals, but of no caudal, a combination of characters which is not 

 only at variance with every British species I am acquainted with, but 

 which will not accord with any of those given by Linnaeus, (not even with 

 the S. barbarus, in which, according to that author, there is no anal,) and 

 which, moreover, will not fall under any of the sections into which Cuvier 

 has divided the genus. There is strong ground for believing that, by some 

 unaccountable accident, Pennant has mixed up under one name the de- 

 scriptions of two totally distinct species. 



Anal, pectoral, and caudal jins, all wanting. 



176. S. lumbriciformis, Nob. (Worm Pipe-Fish.) 

 Body round, slightly compressed anteriorly : snout very 

 short ; of nearly equal breadth with the head : dorsal and 

 vent at about the middle of the entire length. 



S. Ophidion, Flem. Brit. An. p. 176. Acus lumbriciformis, Will. 

 Hist. Pise. p. 160. Little Pipe-Fish, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. 

 p. 141. pi. 33. no. 62. Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. p. 187. no. 62. 



LENGTH. From six to nine inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Extremely slender; the trunk or anterior half 

 slightly compressed, but without angles; the tail round, and tapering 

 to a very fine point, without even the rudiment of a caudal fin : trans- 

 verse shields smooth, apd of a membranous nature, somewhat resembling 

 the segments of the common earth-worm ; between the gills and the vent 

 twenty-eight ; thence to the end of the tail upwards of sixty, perhaps near 

 seventy, but towards the tip so minute as scarcely to admit of being 

 counted with exactness : head small, scarcely one-seventeenth of the 

 entire length ; crown flat, without any elevated ridge ; snout very short, 

 blunt at the tip, compressed, with a sharp keel above and below; its 

 breadth, vertically, not much less than that of the head : dorsal at about 

 the middle of the entire length, but rather more of the fin behind than 

 before it, the distance from the end of the snout to the first ray being a 

 little greater than that from the last ray to the extremity of the tail: vent 

 also almost exactly in the middle, if any thing a little behind it ; with 

 respect to the dorsal, it is forwarder than in the two last species, only 

 one-third of that fin lying in advance of it. 



D. 39; A. 0; C.O; P. 0. 



