SYNGNATHIDiE. 



331 



AsTROCANTHus Sw. (fig. 108.) Head and body orbicular^ 

 covered with spines ; mouth beneath ; tail short, com- 

 pressed ; ventrals pedunculated, placed half way be- 

 tween the mouth and the pectorals ; dorsal fin single, 

 placed at the base of the tail ; the general outline re 

 sembling that of Torpedo.* 



A. stellatus Sw. Lac. i. pL xi. figs. 2, 3. 



Family 4. SYNGNATHID^. Pipe-fish. 



Body slender, mailed with angular scaly plates, united 

 at their sutures ; mouth more or less elongated into a 

 tube, at the extremity of which is the mouth, the open- 

 ing being vertical ; giUs not pectinated, but formed into 

 fascicles, placed in pairs on the branchial arches ; the 

 aperture forming a single spiracle. 



FEGASsusLinn. Body depressed, broad; snout suddenly 

 contracted, narrow, more or less pointed ; the mouth 

 terminal, but placed beneath ; pectorals pedunculated, 

 very large ; ventrals of a single vermiform ray ; tail 



* This family is very imperfectly understood; those species of Cuvier's 

 which have scales appear to belong to the tribe Canthileptes. I exclude 

 from this group all such as have not pedunculated pectorals or a spiracled 

 aperture. 



