STRAIGHT-NOSED PIPE-FISH. 49 



This little pipe-fisli is long, slender, and nearly cylindrical, 

 but slightly compressed from the head to the anal aperture ; 

 from thence to the end of the tail round and tapering very 

 gradually to a fine point ; the head is short, the length of it 

 only half an inch in a specimen of nine inches ; the length of 

 the head therefore, as compared to the whole length of the 

 fish, is as one to eighteen ; the nose is straight, rather com- 

 pressed, a section forming a hexagon slightly elongated, of 

 which the upper and under angles are the most produced ; 

 the distance from the point of the nose to the eye, and from 

 thence to the hinder edge of the operculum., equal ; no pec- 

 toral, anal, or caudal fin ; the anal aperture is near the mid- 

 dle of the whole length of the fish, with a delicately-formed 

 dorsal fin in a line over it, nearly one inch in length at its 

 base, with about one-third of the fin, which contains from 

 thirty-five to forty very slender rays, in advance of the ver- 

 tical line of the anal aperture. Between the head and the 

 anal orifice there are on the body of the fish about thirty 

 sculptured plates or segments, and nearly sixty on the tail, 

 diminishing gradually in size as they approach the tip. 



Colour. — Some specimens are uniform olive green, others 

 are tinged with yellowish brown, and both are occasionally 

 varied with darker shades of colour on the body. 



The largest specimens seldom exceed nine inches in length. 

 The figure at the head of this subject is the exact size of the 

 specimen from which it was drawn. 



