!92 



THE SNAKE PIPE-FISH. 



mimics to a certain extent weeds or floating sticks 



plants, forming a protection to the fish as it floats among algse ; its general appearance like 

 some floating object covered by leaves of seaweeds. Few examples of protective resemblance 

 are so very apparent, for here the beauty of form so often noticed in tins of fishes, is sacrificed 

 to the more practical and useful imitation of straggling weeds. The male of this sea-horse 

 receives its eggs in a pouch on its ventral surface. When they hatch they press the pouch 

 against some hard substance, which forces them out. The Pipe-fish — of this group— also 



The male receives the eggs from the 

 female, and carries them in 

 a pouch. In one species 

 found in the Indian Ocean, 

 the female carries its young 

 in a pouch formed by the 

 two ventral fins held to- 

 gether by filaments which 

 extend from its sides. The 

 figure given in the illustra- 

 tion is of natural size. 



HORSE-LIKE PHYLLOPTERYX.— PhyUopteryx eques. 



In the illustration on 

 page 291, is also shown the 

 Great Pipe-fish, which is 

 often called the Bill-fish 

 and Needle-fish. It is one 

 of the commonest species of 

 its genus. 



This creature is found 

 along the English shores, 

 and can mostly be captured 

 at low water among the sea- 

 weed that has been left in the rock pools. To watch these remarkable fishes is an interesting 

 occupation, for they assume such odd attitudes and perform such curious movements, that 

 they never fail to arrest the attention, and never tire the observer. Sometimes they may be 

 seen swimming about with tolerable speed like other fishes, their 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 color 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, lint it is said that the 

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



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

 Snake Pipe-fish {Syngnatlms 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. 



The rather quaint-looking species which is represented in the accompanying illustration, 

 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 armor is very hard and smooth externally, 

 beinu; covered with a thin layer of a kind of enamel. 



