Fishes. 



tentacle on each side near the nostrils, red or purple with or 

 without brown spots, with two pale blue spots behind the eyes ; 

 L. decamiollii , with the dorsal fin much longer than the anal 

 and free from the caudal fin, usually yellowish with the fins and 

 a spot on the gill-cover red ; L. microcephalns, with the dorsal fin 

 not, or but slightly, longer than the anal, and widely separated 

 from the caudal, crcen, marbled with brown, yellow, or crimson, 

 or browm with darker and lighter marblings. The eggs are 

 yellow, elliptical, disposed in a single layer under stones or on 

 the broad blades of laminaria, and are watched over by both the 

 parents. 



The Sand-eel or Lance {Ammodytes lanceolatus) , character- 

 ised by its silver}' elongate body with forked caudal fin and its 



_^22S^22^^Z2mm, 



riG. rr. — sand-eel or lance. 



pointed, prominent chin, burrows in the sand, and appears 

 in enormous quantities on the surface during full-moon nights 

 in summer, the beach sometimes glittering with these silvery 

 creatures, which make excellent " fritures " (Fig. ii). The oval 

 eggs stick to the sand in water about three fathoms deep. 



The last group of fishes which we have to mention, the 

 Sea-horse and the Pipe-fishes, is highly remarkable for the 

 manner in whicJi the male carries the eggs and young, either 

 m a pouch or fixed to the belly. The Sea-horse [Hippocampus 

 antiquonim) is too characteristic to require more than a figure, 

 which depicts it in the erect attitude in which it holds itself, 

 anchored to a weed by means of its grasping tail (Fig. 13). The 

 brood-pouch is situated under the tail, just behind the belly, with 

 a small anterior opening hy which the eggs are introduced, and 

 the 3'oung expelled when in a fairly advanced state of develop- 

 ment. This little fish is only three or four inches long. It 

 is not commonly found on our coasts. Some thirty j-ears ago, 

 however, two Leigh fishermen had an order from London to 

 procure specimens for aquariums, and when shrimping near 

 Harwich they succeeded in collecting about one hundred in 

 the course of one summer. 



The Pipe-fishes (Fig. 14), distinguished from the Sea-horse by 

 their elongate, snake-like form, belong to two genca and =eyprql 



