342 THE BONT PIKE. 



fully like tliat of the quadruped from which it takes its name, and the resemblance is 

 increased by two apparent ears that project pertly from the sides of the neck. These 

 organs are, however, fins, and when the fish is in an active mood, are moved with 

 considerable rapidity. It is rather a remarkable fact, that the Sea Horse, like the chame- 

 leon, possesses the power of. moving either eye at will, quite independently of the other, 

 and therefore must be gifted with some curious modification in the sense of sight, which 

 enables it to direct its gaze to different objects without confusing its vision. 



The colour of this interesting little fish is light ashen brown, relieved with slight 

 dashes of blue on different parts of the body, and in certain lights gleaming with 

 beautiful iridescent hues that play over its body with a changeful lustre. About twenty 

 species of Sea Horses are known. 



IN the foreground of the illustration is shown the GEEAT PIPE-FISH, also called the 

 BILL-FISH and NEEDLE-FISH, one of the commonest species of its genus. 



This creature is found along our shores, and can mostly be captured at low water 

 among the seaweed that has been left in the rock pools. To watch these remarkable 

 fishes is an interesting occupation, lor they assume such odd attitudes and perform such 

 curious movements, that they never fail to arrest the attention, and never tire the 

 observer. Sometiiies they may be seen swimming about with tolerable speed like other 

 fishes, tl eir curious dorsal fins working like an Archimedean screw, and their long snouts 

 being poked into every crevice. Sometimes, assuming a perpendicular attitude, they put 

 their noses to the ground, and hold their tails aloft, while with their beak -like snouts 

 they stir the sand, or, by ejecting water from their mouths, blow little hollows in it, 

 probably for the purpose of disturbing the minute crustaceans and other marine creatures 

 that find refuge in such localities. 



The colour of the Great Pipe-fish is pale brown, diversified with transverse bars of a 

 dark tint. The average length of a fine specimen is about eighteen inches, but it is said 

 that the fish sometimes attains a length of two or even three feet. 



Several species of this genus inhabit British waters, a rather curious example being 

 the SNAKE PIPE-FISH (Syngnathus anguineus). This little fish is remarkably slender, and 

 altogether snake-like in form, its length being about fourteen inches, and its thickness 

 scarcely exceeding that of a common goose-quill. The dorsal fin is set very far forward. 

 The tail fin is very tiny, and might easily escape observation altogether. A curious 

 account of the Pipe fishes, and their mode of protecting and maturing their eggs, may 

 be seen in the Zoologist, p. 7052. 



THE EATHER quaint-looking species which is represented in the accompanying illus- 

 tration, is a good example of a remarkable order of fishes, where the body is covered 

 with hard bony scales that do not overlap each other, but are arranged side by side, like 

 the tiles of a pavement, or the cubes of mosaic-work. This bony armour is very hard 

 and smooth externally, being covered with a thin layer of a kind of enamel. 



Although popularly called the BONY PIKE, from the mailed exterior and the lengthened 

 wide-jawed form, which has some resemblance to that of a pike, this fish belongs to a 

 totally different order, and in most points of its construction is formed after a different 

 fashion. The general structure, indeed, of the Bony Pike is very remarkable, and affords 

 another instance of the difficulty with which the fish are classed. The body is elongated, 

 and the jaws are also lengthened and well furnished with teeth, looking very like an 

 exaggerated pike's mouth, or the head of the common gavial of the Ganges. In each 

 jaw there is a single row of sharp and conical teeth, and between them, and on the palate, 

 are numerous other teeth, much smaller in size. 



The scales of the Bony Pike are rhombic in form, very like the flat porcelain tiles with 

 which certain ancient chimney-pieces were wont to be decorated, and hardly inferior to 

 those tiles in the polished hardness of their exterior. They are very regularly arranged, 

 being set so as to form a series of oblique rows, extending from the back to the abdomen. 

 As in the sturgeons and sharks, the vertebral column runs along the upper edge of the 

 tail fin. This fish is found in the lakes of America, and sometimes attains a considerable 



