766 



SYNGNATHUS. 



there is one. The first "section of the pipe-fishes have 

 caudal fins, and the second have none, therefore the 

 second must exercise the tail more vigorously in 

 swimming- than the first. Therefore again, the eggs 

 are far more safe on the under side of the tail in the 

 section which have a caudal fin than in the section 

 which have not. But still, even with the fin, the tail 

 has too much motion for the perfect safety of the eggs, 

 without the protection of the pouch ; and they are 

 furnished with that protection accordingly. The body 

 anterior to the vent, which contains all the organs of 

 the vital, nourishing, and reproductive systems of the 

 fish, does not partake in the rapid action of the tail as 

 an organ of motion ; and therefore the eggs placed 

 upon it are secure enough in the depressions of the 

 body without the addition of a pouch. 



Thus far we can understand the meaning of the 

 different organisation of the two sections of these 

 very curious fishes ; but here the chain of our inves- 

 tigation breaks off; for we want all the information 

 that, could we obtain it, would enable us to connect 

 these fishes with the rest of the system of nature, so 

 as fully to understand the part which they act in the 

 general economy of the whole. In nature, all animals 

 are useful, not for what they produce as for what 

 they consume ; and when we find one framed and 

 organised upon a plan widely different from the ma- 

 jority of the others, we may, in general, be assured 

 that the one so formed has an office to perform as 

 curious, and as much out of the ordinary way, as it 

 is itself. But the whole of these fishes is peculiar. 

 They are peculiar in their very skeletons ; tor they 

 are not bony fishes properly so called, neither are 

 they cartilaginous. They in some measure partake 

 of the characters of both, and the result is a character 

 which does not agree exactly with either. Their fins, 

 when they have them, resemble the fins of the true 

 fishes ; and the coverings of their bodies are more 

 analogous to those of the cartilaginous ones. Their 

 gills are intermediate both in structure and in action ; 

 and so, notwithstanding its peculiarities, is the mode 

 of their re-production. The singular form of the 

 body, and the still more singular formation of the 

 mouth, point out a very peculiar kind of food and 

 manner of getting at it ; but it is exactly at this point 

 that our information breaks down ; and we call upon 

 the admirers of nature in its working state to tell us, 

 " What is the particular use of the pipe-fishes ?" At 

 present, there are no data from which to deduce any 

 thing like a satisfactory answer to that question ; and 

 therefore we have no alternative but to wait till more 

 knowledge shall be acquired, and, while we do so, 

 make the most of the works of which we are in pos- 

 session, which carry us very little farther than the 

 mere discrimination of a few of the species, to which 

 species, in this second section, we shall now very 

 briefly advert, confining ourselves to such as have 

 been met with on the shores of the British islands ; 

 as it is by attending to them that we have the best 

 chance of increasing the volume of our information. 



JEqiiorial Pipe-fish (S. &quoreus). The specific 

 name given to this species would lead to the conclu- 

 sion that it is is more a fish of the plane or open sea 

 than the others ; and in corroboration of this we may 

 remark that, as a British fish, it is much more rare 

 on any one part of the coast than either of the species 

 already noticed, but that it has been found occasion- 

 ally at more points. Either, or both, of the fin-tailed 

 species may be obtained, with a very great degree of 



certainty, by fishing for them in certain parts of the 

 channel ; but there is no place where the capture of 

 a specimen of the present species could be calculated 

 upon with any thing like certainty. It was mentioned 

 as occurring in Scotland by Sir Robert Sibbald, 

 whose Scotia Illustrata appeared in 1684; but though 

 Sir Robert is correct in the main, there are certainly 

 doubts as to some of the animals which he enume- 

 rates. The silurus is one of them, and it may be 

 that this pipe-fish is another, the more so that none 

 of the specimens which have been found in recent 

 times have been of nearly the dimensions which he 

 assigns ; namely, two feet in length. The best ac- 

 count that we have of it is from Colonel Montagu, 

 who obtained his specimens on the south coast ; we 

 shall therefore quote what he says of it : " Length 

 twenty inches and a half, viz., ten to the vent, and 

 ten and a half to the end of the tail." " The length 

 of the head, ' adds Mr. Yarrell, " is to the whole length 

 of the fish as one to twelve ; the most similar form 

 to that of S. acus ; its length to the eye three quar- 

 ters of an inch ; from thence to the end of the gill, 

 nine ; including the eye, one inch (which gives the 

 head a little, but a very little, more length than Mr. 

 Yarrell's proportion, which is sufficiently near the 

 truth for ordinary purposes). The form of the body 

 is rather compressed and angular, with an acute dor- 

 Sal and abdominal ridge, which, together with three 

 Slight ridges on each side, give it an octangular ap- 

 pearance ; it is of equal size from the gills to the vent, 

 which part (that between the gills and the vent) con- 

 tains about thirty plates ; from the vent to the extre- 

 mity of the tail it is at first quadrangular, and towurd 

 the end round and taper, containing about thirty 

 plates : immediately behind the vent the body of this 

 specimen suddenly decreases to one-third less in di- 

 ameter ; but this may be a sexual distinction. 



" The dorsal fin consists of forty rays, commencing 

 in a vertical line considerably in front of the vent, 

 and terminating behind it, so that three-fourths of the 

 fin is before the ventral aperture. The end of the 

 tail is extremely small and compressed, the rays of 

 which are not visible to the naked eye. The colour 

 is yellowish, with transverse pale lines and dark mar- 

 gins, one in each joint, and another down the middle 

 of each plate, giving it the appearance of possessing 

 double the number of joints that it really has ; these 

 markings, however, cease at the vent." 



Various testimonies unite in proving that this is a 

 more pelagic fish than either of them which we have 

 noticed as belonging to the first section. Mr. Couch, 

 notwithstanding all his wits, and all his industry in 

 " wiling fishes from the flood," has hitherto been un- 

 able to obtain more than two specimens of this one ; 

 but the channel fishermen report, that about thirty or 

 forty miles from the land, and in a depth of not less 

 than fifty fathoms, it is very commonly seen in fine 

 weather, swimming near the surface. It is also, ac- 

 cording to the accounts, much more abundant near 

 the channel islands than toward the shores of the 

 mainland of England. It does not, indeed, appear 

 to come so regularly to the shallow water for phy- 

 siological purposes as the fin-tailed species ; but we 

 are still in want of many of the elements which are 

 necessary for obtaining a satisfactory history of it. 

 There is one circumstance in the form of this fish 

 which is worthy of attention, the more so that it is 

 common to some others, though not to the whole of 

 the division. The part of the body from the gills to 



