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SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY 





catching other fish. A deep-sea fish sometimes thrown up on 

 the Scandinavian or British coast is the oarfish, Regalecus banksii, 

 a very flat, bandlike fish, attaining a length of seven meters, 

 which has probably given rise to several sea serpent fables. 



The curious marine pipe fishes and sea horses (Fig. 303) 

 are interesting because of the pouch which is present on the 

 ventral side of the male. The eggs are introduced into this 

 pouch and there develop, the young remaining until they are 

 capable of taking care of themselves. The sea horse is without 



Fig. 303. Hippocampus, a sea horse. In B, the operculum is raised to show the gills, 

 inchial aperture; brd.p, brood pouch; d.f, dorsal fin; ^ r , gills: pet./, pectoral fin. 

 (From Parker and Ha 



a caudal fin, and when at rest it coils its tail about a stick or 

 water plant and thus anchors itself ; when in motion the body 

 remains vertical in the water. 



Other curious fishes arc the swellfishes and globefishes, which 

 can distend their bodies enormously ; the sunfish, a big, flat fish, 

 two and a half meters long, and weighing nearly four hundred 

 kilos, which floats on the surface of the temperate waters both 

 North and South; and the angler, or goosefish. Lophius pisca- 

 torins (Fig. 304), abundant on the coast of New England ; it lies 



