290 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



long. The colour, when fresh taken, is of a 

 pale brown, the shape of the body round, and 

 the back tin reaches all the way from the 

 head to the tail. Beneath the throat is a 

 round depression, of a whitish colour, sur- 

 rounded by twelve brown spots, placed in a 

 circle. It is taken in England at the mouth of 

 rivers, four or five miles distant from the sea. 

 The body of the Pipe Fish, in the thickest 

 part, is not thicker than a swan quill, while it 

 is above sixteen inches long. This is angular, 

 but the angles being not very sharp, they are 

 not discernible until the fish is dried. Its 

 general colour is an olive-brown, marked with 

 numbers of bluish lines, pointing from the 

 back to the belly. It is viviparous ; for on 

 crushing one that was just taken, hundreds of 

 very minute young ones were observed to 

 crawl about. 1 



i There are several varieties of pipe fish, such as the 

 Great Pipe Fish, (for which see Plate XXII. fig. 3.) 

 the Deep Nosed Pipe Fish, the Worm Pipe Fish, the 

 Snake Pipe Fish, &c. The following cut represents the 

 Snake Pipe Fish. 



The Hippocampus is a species of Pipe Fish of singular 

 construction. The following represents its figure. It 



is about five inches long. For Hippocampus foliatus, 

 see Plate XXII. fig. 10. 



The Gar Fish. The Gar Fish belongs to the class of 

 needle fish, which denomination they have received from 

 the extreme length of their bodies in proportion to their 

 thickness. They have no scales, but scuta or bucklers, 

 with several angles. The hexagonal form of the body and 

 the anal fin, are the distinguishing characters of the gar 

 fish. The body is composed of eighteen scuta, and the 

 tail of thirty-six, which form as many joints ; the tail is 

 square. It is found in the North and Baltic seas ; it 

 scarcely exceeds the length of a foot, and the thickness of 

 a finger. Besides the appellation of needle fish and gar 

 fish, it is sometimes called by that of a shorter pipe and 

 horn fish. 



The Needle Fiah are natives of the ocean, and the 

 North and Baltic seas. They are usually found in deep 

 places near the coasts, where they are caught with other 

 fish. They produce their young in a perfect state, one 

 after the other, 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 r.t a living bait 

 than a dead one. 



The Hippocampus, which, from the form 

 of its head, some call the seahorse, never ex- 

 ceeds nine inches in length. It is about as 

 thick as a man's thumb, and the body is said, 

 while alive, to have hair on the lore-part, 

 which falls off when it is dead. The snout is 

 a sort of a tube with a hole at the bottom, to 

 which there is a cover, which the animal can 

 open and shut at pleasure. Behind the eyes 

 there are two fins which look like ears ; and 

 above them are two holes which serve for res- 

 piration. The whole body seems to be composed 

 of cartilaginous rings, on the intermediate 

 membranes of which several small prickles 

 are placed. It is found in the Mediterranean, 

 and also in the Western ocean ; and, upon 

 the whole, more resembles a great caterpillar 

 than a fish. The ancients considered it as 

 extremely venomous ; probably induced by its 

 peculiar figure. 



From these harmless animals, covered with 

 a slight coat of mail, we may proceed to others, 

 more thickly defended, and more formidably 

 armed, whose exact station in the scale of 

 fishes is riot yet ascertained. While Linnaeus 

 ranks them among the cartilaginous kinds, a 



The Sea Adder, or little pipe, is nearly round, having 

 only some very small and scarcely perceptible angulur 

 projections on the sides. It has but one fin; and the 

 body is divided into joints, like that j>f 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 for- 

 mer fish. 



The Long File Fish. The body of the long file fish 

 is not very deep; the skin is divided by smooth furrows, 

 with small rough scale-like spaces: each of these, on 

 the sides, have a small spine pointing towards the tail : 

 the first dorsal fin has three spines, the first of which is 

 very large, and rough in front like a file, and hence the 

 English name; the third very short, and situated at a 

 considerable distance from the other two; the skin at 

 the back and belly, at the base of the dorsal and anal fins 

 drawn out and compressed : pectoral fins small ; dorsal 

 and anal fins triangular, and situated nearly opposite each 

 other; the tail even at the end. A singular property is 

 possessed by the first dorsal fin of this fish, which is, that 

 no force can depress the first spine; but if the last be 

 depressed in ever so gentle a manner, the other two im- 

 mediately fall down upon it, and as instantaneously as 

 when a cross-bow is let off by pulling the trigger. One 

 sort found in the Mediterranean, near Rome, is on that 

 account called puce lalestra, the cross-bow fish. 



There is another species, mentioned by Walcott, the 

 body of which is much compressed and deep; the rays 

 of the dorsal fin, spiny; the first ray very long and 

 rough; first dorsal fin, and the back from its base, black; 

 skin rough ; tail rough ; and in the place of each ventral 

 fin n long rough spine. Also another species, (named 

 hispidus by naturalists,) is found in Carolina; the head 

 fin of which is not radiated, and there is a round black 

 spot in the tail fin. The body is rough, and bristly to- 

 wards the tail. The spine, or horn, is situated between 

 the eyes ; and instead of a belly fin it has a jagged sharp 

 spine. Several more species, or varieties, are found in 

 the Indian ocean, and at Ascension island, all which, 

 together with the unicorn, go by the general name of the 

 belestes. For common file fish, see Plate XXI. fig. 22. 



