GREAT PIPEFISH. 
671 
The anal fin lies just behind the vent, at a 
distance from the tip of the snout not exceeding 
41 % (39 — 40 V 2 %) of the length of the body. It is 
extremely small, resembling a thin and narrow dermal 
flap, a little expanded towards the tip, and consists of 
three (according to Moreau four) rays, which do not 
attain a length of even half that of the longest rays of 
the dorsal fin. It is often so entirely enveloped by the 
marsupium of the males as to be invisible externally. 
When expanded the caudal fin is fan-shaped, with 
rounded hind margin. As a rule it contains 10 rays, 
more seldom 9. Its length at the middle is about 3 % 
(2'8 — 3’2 %) of that of the body, or at most about 1 / i 
(26 — 22 %, least in old specimens) of that of the head. 
The coloration is reddish or yellowish brown, with 
about 12 or 13 broad, dark brown, transverse spots 
across the hind part of the head, the back, and the 
tail. These spots are intersected, however, by longi- 
tudinal, oblong, smaller spots of the ground-colour. 
The sides of the snout are also marked in a similar 
manner. The ventral side is yellow or red. The lower 
part of the gill-cover gleams with a silvery lustre. The 
caudal fin is dark brown. The anal and pectoral fins 
are transparent, but the edges of the rays are dark 
brown. The dorsal fin resembles the last-mentioned 
fins, but has several transverse spots arranged in rows 
on the rays. 
The geographical range of the Great Pipefish ex- 
tends along the whole west coast of Europe south of 
the neighbourhood of Trondhjem, and according to 
Gunther the British Museum has also received speci- 
mens through Sir A. Smith from the Cape of Good 
Hope. On the English coast the species is very com- 
mon. It seems hardly probable that it occurs in the 
Mediterranean, as . Kroyer has already remarked. It 
rather appears to be represented there by one or per- 
haps two very nearly allied species, Syngnathus rubes- 
cens and S. tenuirostris. In the west of the Atlantic 
it is unknown. Kroyer states that it occurs in the 
Cattegat; and according to Wintiier he received two 
young specimens from the northern entrance of the 
Sound, oft' Ilornbaek. In Christiania Fjord it is com- 
paratively plentiful, according to Collett; and the 
Royal Museum has received through Mr. C. A. IIansson 
several specimens, between 270 and 442 mm. in length, 
from Dynekil and Stromstad Fjord. Thus it cannot 
be considered rare on the north coast of Bohuslan; but 
further south it has never been met with on the Swe- 
dish coast. 
The Great Pipefish generally lives, like other Lopho- 
branchs, among the seaweed in comparatively shallow 
water, even between the tide-marks. But now and 
then we meet with the Syngnathi , and with this species 
among others, at the surface, even far out at sea, where 
they show a high degree of activity in their move- 
ments, especially at night. During the Atlantic ex- 
pedition of the corvette Josephine in 1869 I stood many 
a night in the bows, and watched the wriggling motion, 
in lines of phosphorescent light through the dark waves, 
of Syngnathus pelagicus, a species which comes very 
near the Great Pipefish, but is distinguished from it 
in several respects, for example by a comparatively 
larger head and shorter tail and by the much shorter 
marsupium of the males. Thompson also tells us of 
the Great Pipefish a : “A friend who has frequently 
watched the movements of pipefishes in Belfast Bay 
describes them as skimming along the surface of the 
water, in the summer evenings especially, like a 
slate thrown horizontally. — He lias seen them skip- 
ping for 20 or 30 yards at a time, and also spring- 
ing a foot high into the air.” The specimen which is 
represented in our figure, was taken by a fisherman 
from Bohuslan, Aniiersson by name, on “the Great 
Fishing-bank S.W. of Bergen in 100 — 150 fathoms of 
water;” but we have no information whether it was 
taken at the bottom, or perhaps found at the surface. 
In its daily life, according to Kroyer, the Great Pipe- 
fish “swims slowly, with singular, stiff, angular, and as 
it were contorted movements.” At these times, here 
as in the Lophobranchs in general, it is the vibrating 
dorsal fin that is the real instrument of locomotion, the 
pectoral fins, which move in the same manner, seeming 
rather to steer the course of the fish. The fish lies in 
every possible position, with the head turned downwards 
or upwards or forwards at will, as it glides on in quest 
of its food*, which seems to consist principally of cru- 
staceans 0 , usually of minute size, though “not unfre- 
quently,” says Couch, “shrimps of comparatively no small 
size are swallowed; and there have been found in the 
stomach some so large as to raise our wonder how they 
“ Nat. Hist. Irel., vol. IV, p. 239. 
b Cf. Couch, Hist. Fish. Brit. Isl., vol. IV, p. 353. 
c Cf. Olsson, Iakt. fislc. foda , Lunds Univ. Arsskr., VIII (1871), p. 10. 
85 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
