PISHES. 



267 



strong to prove fatal to small animals, and even to 

 mules and horses crossing tlie streams which they 

 frequent, when a number will attack them at once. 

 This creature is a native of the rivers and pools of 

 South America, Demerara, &c. ; the natives kill them 

 by driving in a great number of horses, and when the 

 Eels have exhausted their electrical powers, they are 

 then caught and killed. 



5. LOPHOBEANCHI (Tufted gill). 



To the Lophobranchi belongs the Pipe-fish (Hippocampus, 

 or Sea-horse, fig. 42). The following is Dr. Baird's 

 description of these curi- 

 ous little creatures : 



" Most of these species 

 are straight, but others 

 of the family contract 

 after death, so as to form 

 a grotesque resemblance 

 to a horse in miniature. 

 These form the genus 

 Hippocampus, and from 

 their shape are generally 

 called Sea-horses. Hip- 

 pocampus brevirostris 

 (the short-nosed Sea- 

 horse) is occasionally met 

 with on the British 

 coast. It is from six to 

 ten inches long, the body 

 much compressed, short 

 and deep ; the whole length of the body and tail 

 divided by longitudinal and transverse ridges, with 

 tubercular points at the angles of the intersection. 

 The snout is slender, and the tail long, quadrangular, 

 and terminated in a naked or finless tip. When swim- 

 ming about, the Hippocampus maintains a vertical 

 position, but the tail is ready to grasp whatever meets 

 it in the water ; it quickly entwines in any direction 



TIG. 42. HIPPOCAMPUS (From a 

 dried specimen). 



