DEEP-NOSED PIPE-FISH. 333 



It is the S. viridis of M. Risso,* a term that seems liable 

 to objection, even if a name were wanting, inasmuch as seve- 

 ral other species are more or less green. 



The Deep-nosed Pipe-fish does not differ materially in 

 its habits, that I am aware of, from the species last described. 

 The ova are transferred from the abdomen of the female to 

 the sub-caudal pouch of the male, and there hatched in the 

 same manner. When fishing in ten or twelve feet water 

 over a soft surface covered with weeds, using the small net 

 described and figured in vol. i. page 212, I have taken both 

 sorts together, finding the deep-nosed species abundant on 

 the Dorsetshire coast. 



The whole length of the largest specimens I have seen 

 was thirteen inches ; from the point of the closed jaws to the 

 posterior end of the indurated portion of the gill-cover, the 

 distance is, compared to the whole length of the fish, as one 

 to six ; the head larger than in S. acus, and without the 

 elevated ridge on the top of it ; the distance from the point 

 of the upper jaw to the projecting tubercle in front of the 

 eye, and thence to the end of the pectoral fin, equal ; the 

 united jaws are very much compressed, and nearly as deep as 

 the head, only slightly inclining to a slope before the eyes ; 

 the body hexangular ; the middle lateral angle on each side 

 becoming the upper angles of the quadrangular tail at the 

 end of the dorsal fin. This fin commences farther back than 

 in S. acus, the middle of the dorsal fin being very nearly the 

 middle of the whole length of the fish ; the series of indu- 

 rated plates between the shoulder and the vent includes 

 eighteen, thence to the end of the tail about thirty-seven ; 

 but both series are liable to a little variation in the number 

 of these sculptured plates : the abdomen is almost rounded ; 



* Figured by M. Guerin^ in illustration of the genera of the Rtgne Animal, 

 Poissons, plate 65, fig. 1 . 



