PIPE-FISHES AND SEA-HORSES. 



425 



southwards to the Cape, and grows to a length of a foot and a half. As an 

 example of a second genus, we may mention the deep-nosed pipe-fish (S. typhle), 

 of the British seas, distinguished by the upper ridge on the tail being continuous 

 with the lateral line, but not with the dorsal ridge. In the tropical genus 

 Doryichthys, as in some others, we find that the eggs are only glued to the skin 

 ■of a broad groove on the under surface of the males, instead of being protected by 

 a, closed pouch. The slender straight-nosed pipe-fish {Nerophis ophidium), which 

 may not unfrequently be seen served up among a dish of whitebait, is a British 

 example of a fourth genus, in which not only is there no pouch on the under 



GREAT PIPE-FISH AND SHORT-SNOUTED SEA-HORSE (| nat. size). 



surface of the males, but the body is rounded and nearly smooth, and the caudal 

 fin either rudimentary or wanting. All the pipe-fishes are carnivorous in their 

 ■diet ; and it is stated that in those species provided with a pouch, the fry will 

 return to this for shelter till a considerable time after birth. The pipe-fishes 

 swim about slowly in a very peculiar manner, more generally vertically or in an 

 inclined position than horizontally, contorting their bodies into every conceivable 

 kind of posture, and poking their long snouts inquisitively into bunches of sea- 

 weed in their search for food. 



The prehensile structure of the tail is the chief difference between sea- 

 horses and pipe-fish, although in all the existing representatives of the former 

 group there is no caudal fin. The sea-horses are divided into several genera, of 



