SYNONATHID.E. 



I have verified by repeated examinations. Mr. Walcotfs 

 observation is as follows : - 



" The male differs from the female in the belly from the 

 vent to the tail fin being much broader, and in having for 

 about two -thirds of its length two soft flaps, which fold to- 

 gether, and form a false belly (or pouch). They breed in 

 the summer ; the females casting their roe into the false 

 belly of the male. This I have asserted from having ex- 

 amined many, and having constantly found, early in the 

 summer, roe in those without a false belly, but never any in 

 those with ; and on opening them later in the summer, there 

 has been no roe in those which I have termed the female, 

 but only in the false belly of the male." 



On dissecting males and females the proof of the correct- 

 ness of this new view was obvious. The anal or sub-caudal 

 pouch is peculiar to the males only, and is closed by two 

 elongated lateral flaps. On separating these flaps, and ex- 

 posing the inside, the ova, large and yellow, were seen lining 

 the pouch in some specimens, while in others the hemi- 

 spheric depressions from which the ova had been but recently 

 removed were very visible. In each of these the opened 

 abdomen exhibited true male organs. The females examined 

 had no anal pouch, and the opened abdomen exposed two 

 lobes of ova of large size. In a specimen of a male of S. 

 acus, obtained at Dover on the 20th of July 1835, and for 

 which I am indebted to W. Christy, Esq. the opened abdo- 

 men exhibited the preparatory organs of the male ; and the 

 displayed sub-caudal pouch showed many eggs contained in 

 it, the young of which were fully developed, and ready to 

 escape from the capsules, while from others the young had 

 actually escaped. They were rather more than one inch in 

 length, and slightly barred with brown. 



In the plate devoted to Syngnathi, in the last two octavo 



