THE SEA-HORSE. 233 



fish. The strong spine cannot be forced down till the small one 

 has been first depressed and the catch disengaged. 



The Plectognaths are mostly denizens of the warmer seas, 

 but the pig-faced trigger-fish of the Mediterranean (Balistes 

 capriscus) has been caught three times in the British waters 

 since 1827, and the short sun-fish or molebut, though occur- 

 ring but occasionally, may be said to have been taken from 

 John o' Groat's to the Land's End. It grows to an immense 

 size, often attaining the diameter of four feet, sometimes even 

 double that size, and occasionally weighing from 300 to 500 

 pounds. When observed in our seas, the sun-fishes have gene- 

 rally appeared as though they were dead or dying, floating 

 lazily along on one side and making little or no attempt to 

 escape. It is to be presumed that in more congenial waters 

 they evince a greater degree of liveliness. 



The order of the Loph'obranchii is in many respects too 

 curious and interesting to be passed over in silence. Here the 

 gills, instead of being as usual ranged like the teeth of a comb, 

 are clustered into small filamentous tufts placed by pairs along 

 the branchial arches ; the face projects into a long tubular 

 snout, having the mouth either at its extremity, as in the Hip- 

 pocampus and in the Pipe-fishes, or at its base, as in the Pegasus 

 of the Indian seas; and the body is covered with shields or 

 small plates, which often give it an angular form, and encase it 

 as it were in jointed armour. But the most interesting feature 

 of their economy is the pouches in which the males of the 

 most characteristic genera carry the eggs until they are hatched. 

 In the hippocampi this provision for the safety of the future 

 generation, which strongly reminds one of the kangaroo or the 

 opossum, forms a perfect sack, opening at its commencement 

 only ; in the pipe-fishes it is closed along its whole length by 

 two soft flaps folding over each other. Another peculiarity of 

 these interesting little fishes is the independent motion of their 

 eyes, the one glancing hither and thither while its fellow remains 

 motionless, or looks in different directions. This phenomenoi 

 of double vision, which was long supposed to be peculiar to the 

 chameleon, is, however, not confined to this singular reptile or 

 to the hippocampi and pipe-fishes, but has been found by 

 Mr. G-osse to exist likewise in the Little Weever (Trachinus 

 vipera), in the Suckers (Lepidogastri), a small family remarkable 



