THE PIPE-FISH 7 



pools. It is a most beautiful little creature, and, 

 strange to say, the male is much more handsome 

 than the female, for he is golden yellow above 

 and white beneath, with streaks and spots of lilac 

 upon his back and sides, while his mate is reddish 

 yellow all over. Besides this, he has the front 

 spine of his first back-fin drawn out to such a 

 length that it reaches almost to the tip of his tail, 

 while all his other fins are very long and very 

 spiny. He really does look, indeed, very much 

 like a tiny water-dragon. That is the reason, of 

 course, why he is called the "dragonet." The 

 female, however, has much smaller fins. Indeed, 

 she is so very unlike the male that until a few 

 years ago even naturalists thought that she was 

 a different fish altogether, and she was gene- 

 rally known as the Fox, on account of her reddish 

 colour. 



If you ever succeed in finding a dragonet in the 

 rock-pools it is almost sure to be a female, for the 

 male hardly ever comes into shallow water. 



PLATE III 



THE PIPE-FISH (2) 



This is a very odd-looking fish indeed quite 

 the most curious of all the fishes which live in the 

 rock-pools. And as it is very common, you ought 

 to be able to find it without any difficulty. 



