762 



spot on the breast ; the cheeks, and also all the un- 

 der parts, slate grey ; the bill ash ; the feet brown, 

 the length six inches, 



AS". Ruficauda. The upper part brown, slightly 

 clouded with red ; the quills and tail feathers red ; 

 the chin yellow ; the throat, breast, and belly, white ; 

 the under parts, backwards, grey ; the bill and feet 

 black ; the length five inches. 



S. JKu/lcapillus. Upper part brown ; top of the 

 head red ; eye streak yellow ; forehead and cheeks 

 greyish ash ; quills brown, margined with red ; tail 

 much wedged, and of a clear maroon colour ; breast 

 grey ; flanks olive ; belly whitish ; bill black ; feet 

 brown ; length five inches. 



Little is known of them save the colours and 

 sizes. They appear to stand in nearly the same re- 

 lations to the tropical forests as the warblers do to 

 the temperate ones, and we have mentioned them 

 chiefly for the contrast of the plumage. 



SYNDACTYLI, a family of birds which have 

 the outer and middle toes of nearly the same length, 

 and soldered together. They consist of bee-eaters, 

 king-fishers, hornbills, and a few other genera. See 



BlHU, 



SYNGNATHUS (Pipe-fish), or perhaps SYNGNA- 

 THIDJE, the pipe-fish family, singularly formed fishes, 

 belonging to the order Lophobranchii, or those that 

 have the gills in tufts. The name Syngnathus means 

 that the jaws are united, and the fishes have the 

 mouth drawn out into a sort of tube or pipe. The 

 characters are : the mouth drawn out into a sort of 

 tube, formed of prolongations of the ethmoide, the 

 vomer, the tympana!, the preopercular, and the sub- 

 opercular bones, and not of the genus properly so 

 called ; and this lengthened tube, which gives a very 

 singular form to the head of the fish, has a mouth 

 of the ordinary structure at its termination ; but the 

 opening of it is nearly vertical. The breathing aper- 

 ture is at the nape, In their fins they vary much, the 

 greater portion have no ventrals, some want only the 

 ventrals, others have no fins but the dorsal and cau- 

 dal, and others again have only the dorsal. Their 

 bodies are in general very slender and much elonga- 

 ted, some of them have a considerable similarity to 

 snakes, and others to worms ; and some are popularly 

 called sea-needles. Some of them have the tails pre- 

 hensile, or capable of laying hold of sea-weed or other 

 substances by curling the tail round them, and we 

 believe it can curl round with equal readiness in every 

 direction. In an economical point of view they are 

 of no value ; but they have an interest with the mere 

 lovers of nature, in being among the most singular 

 looking of all the productions of the sea, while the very 

 singular mode of their production which differs not 

 only from that of all other fishes, but of every known 

 animal, gives them a still higher degree of interest 

 in the estimation of physiologists. 



Essentially they are fishes even in this the most 

 peculiar part of their economy, that is to say, they 

 are females and males, the first of which prepares roe 

 and the second milt, just as in other fishes. Here, 

 however, the parallel ends, and we come to the sin- 

 gular peculiarity. The females are oviparous, bring- 

 ing their eggs or roe to maturity, and then discharging 

 them as is done by all the oviparous fishes. But the 

 eggs so discharged by the female are not committed 

 to the sea, they are handed over to the male in order 

 to be hatched. The male has an abdominal or sub- 

 caudal pouch for receiving the eggs, and they not 



SYNDACTYLI SYNGNATHUS. 



only remain in this pouch till the young are formed 

 and' escape from the capsules of the eggs, but the said 

 young afterwards take shelter in the pouch of the 

 male, as a place of security from danger. The pouch 

 is differently formed and situated in the different spe- 

 cie*, but that is a matter of detail for the particular 

 notices of them, and the general principle is common 

 to them all. 



They thus have some resemblance to the marsupial 

 mammalia of Australia ; only, in the case of the fishes, 

 the marsupium is on the male, while in the marsupial 

 mammalia it is on the female. In what may be con- 

 sidered as the most typical members of the family, if* 

 in so singular a family any one can be considered as 

 typical, the pouch is composed of two longitudinal 

 lobes or leaves, which shut against each other on the 

 lower part of the fish, and when it has this form it i* 

 chiefly if not always subcaudal ; but it is sometimes 

 made up of a number of sections, and these are gene- 

 rally in advance of the vent. By what kind of pro- 

 gress the eggs are transferred from the female to the 

 pouch of the male, we have no means of ascertaining ; 

 and indeed we are nearly in the same ignorance as to 

 the mode in which the females of the marsupial mam- 

 malia transfer their young to the abdominal pouch 

 upon themselves. 



The family consists of three genera, Syngiiathtis, 

 properly so called, Hippocampus, and Solenottomwt. 

 Various species of the first of these genera are found 

 in the British seas, chiefly but not exclusively on the 

 south coast ; and there is at least one British species 

 of the second ; but the third genus is, we believe, 

 wholly confined to the Indian and other warm seas. 



SYNGNATHUS, properly so called, pipe-fish. There 

 are two sections of this genus distinguished from each 

 other by the number of the fins, and also by the form 

 of the hatching appendage on the under side of the 

 male, Mr. Yarrell, to whom the students of British 

 fishes, whether scientific or amateur, are under so 

 many obligations, has established as British two spe- 

 cies of the one section, and three of the other. In 

 doing this he has blended his own most accurate, va- 

 luable, and discriminating observations and dissections, 

 with those of other competent naturalists. 



1. Pipe fishes with many fins. The characters of 

 this section, some of which, however, it possesses in 

 common with the other one, are as follows : Body 

 very long and slender, covered with a series of hard 

 plates, arranged longitudinally in parallel lines. The 

 head long, with both jaws produced in the manner 

 that has been already stated, and united so as to form 

 a tube, at the end of which the mouth is placed. 

 There are pectoral, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, but 

 no ventrals. The fins are small, the tail very long 

 and tapering, so as to be slender at the base of the 

 caudal, which is shaped like a little fan. The males 

 have a long pouch on the under part behind the vent, 

 which is closed by two folding leaves or lobes running 

 in a longitudinal mariner, and in this pouch the eggs 

 arc hatched after they have been discharged by the 

 female. 



The use of the singular tubular extension of the 

 mouth in these fishes has not been ascertained, neither 

 is it understood why they have the gills so very dif- 

 ferently formed from those of all other fishes. These 

 gills consist of a number of little tufts, and they are 

 defended externally by a large and firm operculum or 

 gill cover, which does not open like that of ordinary 

 fishes, but merely by a hole at the posterior part of 



