EESPIEATION OF FISHES. 207 



after which it appears to be able to bear either extreme. 

 Its food is small crustaceous animals, and it is said to be 

 particularly partial to feeding on the fry of the Blennies." 



On the subject of its instant death, when removed 

 from its native element to fresh water, the same natu- 

 ralist remarks, alluding to the hypothesis that the speedy 

 death of fishes in general, when removed into the atmos- 

 phere, is due to the drying of the delicate membranes of 

 the gills ; " the reverse of desiccation takes place in this 

 instance : the gills are bathed with a fluid containing 

 more oxygen than sea- water, and which also yields that 

 oxygen much easier, yet death happens immediately. 

 In this last instance it may be inferred that the fish, 

 unable suddenly to accommodate its respiratory organs 

 to fluids of such different densities as those of pure sea 

 and fresh water, the blood is imperfectly aerated, the 

 brain is affected, convulsions ensue, and if not released 

 it soon dies." 1 



You will pretty certainly find in your net, too, twin- 

 ing and writhing about like little snakes, some of the 

 smaller species of Pipe-fishes, often called Sea-adders, 

 and most abundantly the smallest of them, and the 

 commonest in shallow waters, the Worm Pipe. 2 The 



1 British Fishes (2d Ed.), pp. 79, 81. 



2 Syngnathus lumbriciformis, represented in its favourite attitude, on a 

 tuft of Chondrus, at the right side of Plate xxrn. 



