THE BROAD-NOSED PIPE-FISH. 55 



FAMILY IL SYNGNATHID^E. 



The Syngnathidse are all marine, though many species enter fresh waters. They are widely dis- 

 tributed over the world, but limited to the temperate and tropical regions. The openings for the gillu 

 are very small, and placed at the upper angle of the hinder margin of the gill-cover. There is only 

 one dorsal fin, and that is soft ; there are never any ventral fins, and in some examples the other fins 

 disappear. There are two divisions of this family represented by the Pipe-fish and the Sea-horse. 

 Of Pipe-fishes there are ten genera, and of Sea-horses five. Notwithstanding the marvellous 

 appearances which the Sea-horses assume fi'om the circumstance that the tail is prehensile and without 

 trace of a caudal fin, and serves the purpose of a hand as efficiently as the tail of a monkey, the 

 Pipe-fishes pei-haps present circumstances in. their history of still greater interest. The whole of the 

 male Pipe-fishes perform the office of hatching the young in pouches on their own bodies, though in 

 two genera named Nerophis and Protocampus the pouches are wanting, and the eggs are attached to 

 the loose skin of the abdomen in the male. These two genera want the pectoral fin, and the caudal 

 fin is sometimes absent, and sometimes represented by a rudiment. Some of the genera have the egg 

 pouch for the male, which is usually closed after the eggs are received into it, situate upon the 

 abdomen, while in other genera it is situated upon the tail. 



The Broad-nosed Pipe-fish (Siphonostoma typhle) is found on British shores and all round the 

 coasts of Europe, ranging into the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and as far north as Sweden. Its 

 prevailing colour is olive-green, mottled with pale and dark shades of yellow. The usual length is a foot 

 to fifteen, inches, though Yarrell speaks of specimens eighteen inches long, and quotes Bloch as attribut- 

 ing a length of two or three feet. They have been taken in shallow water, where the bottom is covered 

 with weeds. The humeral bones in this genus are movable, and are never united together to form a 

 bony ring, as in the other Pipe-fishes. The trunk is sheathed in a series of eighteen bony rings, and the 

 series is prolonged by about thirty-five smaller rings which cover the tail. The tail is four-sided, and 

 terminates in a pointed caudal fin, which has the shape of a partly-opened fan. The genus Syngnathus 

 is represented by forty-four species, many of which belong to the Malay Archipelago and Eastern 

 Seas, several are African, a few American, and two or three are found in the Mediterranean. On 

 British shores the Great Pipe-fish, or Needle-fish, Sea-adder, or Tangle-fish (Syngnathus acus), is met 

 with chiefly in bays and harbours. They are usually seen together in pairs, and feed on stony ground 

 or among overhanging weeds. Sometimes small Shrimps are swallowed by them, for though the 

 mouth is small it admits of being considerably enlarged by the action of muscles on the bones. The 

 nostrils are close in front of the large eyes. The body is considerably lengthened, and tapers behind 

 the dorsal fin in the female, and behind the marsupial pouch in the male. Behind the dorsal fin the 

 body is square ; in front it has seven ridges, three on each side, and a median ridge in the middle of 

 the back. It is covered with a series of bony plates, of which there are twenty in front of the vent, 

 and forty-four on the tail. The colour is a rich yellowish-brown, often mottled. In the young the 

 snout is short, and the body has many fewer osseous rings ; there are also fewer dorsal rays, and the 

 lateral line is more frequently continuous with the upper edge of the tail ; but when the fish gets to 

 be more than eight inches long the characters of the adult become developed. The young fishes possess 

 the power of reproduction ; the ovaries of the female are always found well developed, and the 

 pouches of the males, which are said by Dr. Giinther to be nearly as long as the part of the body in 

 front of the vent, are filled with eggs when they are mature. The pouch is not very deep ; before the 

 eggs are impregnated its entrance is sealed up ; after the eggs have been received into it, which is a 

 process extending over some little time, it is again sealed up by a glutinous secretion, similar to that 

 by which the ova are held to its walls. Eggs have been found in the pouch as early as the beginning 

 of winter ; but some of the young in it are found fully developed, while others were just showing the 

 rudiments of the snout and the eye. Couch records that in April he found the ova in the pouch all 

 closely fastened together and attached to its walls at the sides and back, so that each egg was contained 

 in a cell. The eggs were formed of transparent fluid, with a red spot on one side ; this spot is always 

 directed towards the opening of the pouch. Even when fully developed there is a kind of attachment 

 between the parent and the young, and after they have escaped into the water they seek the shelter of 

 the pouch when alarmed. The roe has been found developed in examples only four inches long. 



