206 



CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



operculum is large, but confined * and the aperture is 

 merely a spiracle : the branchial rays are much the 

 same as in ordinary fishes; but the branchia themselves, 

 instead of being fringed or pectinated, form a number 

 of small rounded tufts or fascicles. In what seems the 

 typical division, a most singular conformation prevails, 

 discovered so far back as 1785, by Walcott, a learned 

 naturalist of this country, whose words we shall here 

 quote. " The male (of the Syngnathus) differs from the 

 female, in the belly, from the vent to the tail fin, being 

 much broader, and in having, for about two thirds of 

 its length, two soft flaps, which fold together and form 

 a false belly or pouch. They breed in summer, the 

 female casting her roe into the false belly of the 

 male." * Here the eggs are matured ; and the young, 

 when ready, escape from the capsules and shift for 

 themselves. Nevertheless, it appears certain that, as 

 in the marsupial quadrupeds, the young again resort to 

 this natural shelter, even after they have quitted it for 

 the first time. Mr. Yarrell says, " I have been assured 

 by fishermen, that if the young were shaken out of the 

 pouch into the water, they did not swim away, but when 

 the parent fish was held in the water in a favourable 

 position, the young would again enter the pouch/' 

 Another extraordinary peculiarity of these fish, — at least, 

 of those of the genus Hippocampus, — is the prehensile 

 nature of their lengthened and frnless tail ; they twist 

 this member round the stems of marine plants, and 

 in this position dart upon such small insects or other 

 animals as come within their reach. " The eyes move 

 independently of each other, as in the chameleon : this, 

 with the brilliant changeable iridescence about the head, 

 and its blue bands, forcibly remind the observer of that 

 animal." This analogy is still more perfect, from the 

 fact of the chameleon fixing itself, as it were, by the 

 tail, when looking out for its prey, precisely in the same 

 manner as the Hippocampus. Analogies so strong be- 



* See Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 528., where the reader will find 

 many other interesting particulars relative to the group. 



