456 



FOLIATED PIPEFISH. 



somewhat less striking, the head and tail being 

 carried nearly strait. It is a native of the Medi- 

 terranean, Northern, and Atlantic seas. 



FOLIATED PIPEFISH. 



Syngnathus Foliatus. S. olivaceo-nigricans, ^Ibido'puncfatus, 

 appendicibus foliaceis. 



Blackish-olive Pipefish, with white specks, and leaf-shaped ap- 

 pendages. 



A MOST extraordinary species ; far exceeding all 

 the rest of the genus in the singularity of its ap- 

 pearance, which is such as at first view rather ta 

 suggest the idea of some production of fancy than 

 of any real existence. In its general shape it is 

 greatly allied to the preceding species, but is con- 

 siderably longer in proportion, or of a more slender 

 habit: its great particularity however consists in 

 the large leaf-shaped appendages with which the 

 back, tail, and abdomen, are furnished : these ap- 

 pendages are situated on very strong, rough, square 

 spines or processes, and were it not for the perfect 

 regularity of their respective proportions, might be 

 mistaken for the leaves of some kind of fucus ad- 

 hering to the spines. The colour of the whole ani- 

 mal is a dusky or blackish olive*, thickly sprinkled 

 on all parts, except on the appendages, with small 

 round whitish specks, and accompanied by a kind 

 of metallic gloss on the abdomen : the fms are soft. 



* Perhaps greener in the living animal. 



