NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Pipe fish Sea adder, or little pipe. 



from eggs hatched in their bodies, like the sharks 

 and rays. Having but little flesh they are fit 

 only for baiting lines, and they are the more 

 proper for this purpose as they are tenacious of 

 life, and it is well known that fish bite more 

 eagerly at a living bait than at a dead one. 



The pipe fish is another species of the needle 

 fish. Its body is of an heptagonal form, and is 

 covered with twenty scuta; the tail is hexagonal, 

 and consists of forty-three. These scuta are of 

 the nature of horn, and form seven angles, three 

 of which arc on each side, and one in the middle 

 of the belly. This fish is caught in the iNorth 

 and Baltic seas, and grows to the length of two 

 or three feet. Like the gar fish, it is used as a 

 bait. Pennant and Gronovius make but one 

 species of the gar and pipe fish; but, besides the 

 difference in size, the figure of the heptagonal 

 bucklers of the latter, forms a marked distinction 

 between them and those of the former, which 

 are hexagonal. 



The sea adder, or little pipe, is nearly round, 

 having only some Tery small and scarcely per- 

 ceptible angular projections on the sides. It has 

 but one fin, and the body is divided into joints 

 like that of the common worm. It grows to the 

 length of two feet, and is not thicker than A 

 swan's quill. It inhabits the North and Baltic 

 seas, and is of the same nature as the two former 

 fish. 



