A PERSECUTED PIPE. 211 



Gammarus crept up a little nearer to the head. The 

 Gammarus seemed to be the marine prototype of the 

 old Man of the Mountain, whose pertinacity, in retain- 

 ing his place on the back of Sinbad the Sailor, is a por- 

 tion of that lore of our boyhood, that is never afterwards 

 forgotten. The Pipe-fish then changed its tactics. In- 

 stead of lashing with its tail, it gave to its whole body 

 the kind of movement it might have had if fixed on a 

 Lilliputian spit, and in the act of being roasted. The 

 body was made to revolve round and round on its 

 longitudinal axis ; but the Gammarus still held on, and, 

 at each interval of rest, made a few steps further in 

 advance. This was more than once repeated, until, 

 pitying the poor Pipe-fish, we removed the cause of its 

 annoyance to another vessel." 1 



Among these pleasing little fishes some very remark- 

 able deviations from the ordinary economy of animals 

 occur, though not quite unique. In almost all the 

 Mammalia of Australia, as is well known, the female 

 has an external pouch or false belly, into which the 

 young is transferred at a very early period of embryonic 

 life, and there matured. In the Pipa, or Surinam Toad, 

 the eggs are laid by the female, and placed on the 

 broad back of the male, cells being then formed in 

 the skin, which receive the eggs till they are hatched. 



1 Zoology for Schools, p. 221. 



