86 ACCOUNT OF FIVE RARE SPECIES 



s 



acus*. To this opinion I am ready to subscribe, 

 notwithstanding a late author has attempted to 

 define the two species ; for, in the vast abundance 

 that have come under my inspection, considerable 

 variation in the size of the snout in proportion to 

 the head has been noticed, as well as the bulk of 

 the body in proportion to the length, the colour, 

 and carina or angle on the belly ; and it must be 

 confessed, nothing has appeared sufficient to con- 

 stitute two species, nor have I been able to find any 

 description of typkle sufficient to characterize a 

 distinction from aetts. By consulting various 

 authors, it is observable, that both these supposed 

 species vary considerably in the number of rays 

 in the dorsal fin, and that the anal is, from its 

 minuteness, sometimes overlooked. The distinc- 

 tion, therefore, of these, is by no means made evi- 

 dent ; but we have an additional species given to 

 us as British by Mr Donovan, the Syngnathus 

 pelagicus, This is destitute of the anal fin, but 

 resembles the acus, in being possessed of the dor- 

 sal and caudal fins, and in being heptangular ; but 

 the form is said to be more slender, the snout 

 comparatively less, and the whole length of the 

 fish rarely exceeds five or six inches. 



It might indeed be doubted, whether this is 

 actually the pelagicus, since the figure in Bloch 



* The figures in tab, xxiii. Br. Zool. are numbered 

 wrong : 6 a, and 61. should be reversed. 



