DEEP-NOSED PIPE-FISH. 



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 21 , 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* actts, 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 liegne Animal, 

 Poissons, plate 65, fig. 1. 



