672 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
could have been made to pass between the jaws and 
through the gullet,” this depending, of course, on the 
distensive powers of the snout. 
The spawning-season occurs in spring and summer. 
Couch found a male with eggs in the marsupium in 
April. On the 7th of May, 1869, at the west entrance 
of the Channel (Lat. 47° 14' N., Long. 9° 9' W.), the 
Josephine Expedition took several young specimens of 
this species, swimming freely about at the surface. 
These specimens were between 10 and 21 mm. long, 
of light colour and transparent, but already marked 
with transverse spots. In the smallest of them the 
whole of the embryonic vertical fin was still persistent. 
The largest ones had fully developed fins, except the 
anal, of which not a trace was yet visible; and their 
plates, as is usual in the fry, were tipped with spines. 
We found the number of rings in front of the dorsal 
fin to be 19. Malm saw in the possession of Mr. 
G. Kolthoff a male 440 mm. long, with almost 
fully developed embryos, that had been taken in 
the neighbourhood of Skafto (Gullmar Fjord) on the 
1st of August, 1877. In two males which were taken 
in Stromstad Fjord by Mr. C. A. Hansson in Sep- 
tember and October, 1888, the marsupium is quite 
empty. 
It was in this species that John Walcott first 
discovered, either in 1784 or 1785 according to Yarrell, 
that it is really the male who carries the impregnated 
eggs during their further development, and not the fe- 
male, as had previously been supposed ever since the 
time of Aristotle. Walcott’s observation was first 
published, however, by Yarrell in 1836, or five years 
after Ekstrom had published his account of the Deep- 
nosed Pipefish ( Syngnathus typhle). 
THE LESSER PIPEFISH (si v. lilla tangsnallan")- 
SYNGN ATH US ROSTELL ATUS. 
Plate XXVIII, figs. 6—8. 
Snout terete and shallow. Length of the head less than 13 % of that of the body and at most 20 % of that of 
the tail , which is more than twice that of the trunk. Distance between the dorsal fin and the tip of the snout at 
most 37 % of the length of the body, and the length of the base of this fin more than 1 / 3 of this distance and 
also greater than the length of the head. Length of the marsupium of the males more than twice the length of 
the head. Hind margin of the caudal fin rounded. 
D. 33—39; A. 3 6 ; P. 9—11; C. (9) 10; Ann. 52—56 = 
(15—17) + x. 
Syn. Syngnathus pelagicus, Donovan, Brit. Fish., tab. LV1II (nec 
Osbeck). 
Syngnathus typhle, Malm (p. p.), Ofvers. Vet. Akad. Fork. 
1852, p. 84. 
Syngnathus rostellatus, Nilss., Skand. Fn., Fisk., p. 687 ; 
Schleg., Pier. Nederl., Vissch., p. 179, tab. 17. fig. 2; 
Ltkn, Vid. Meddel. Naturh. For. Kbhvn 1865, p. 222; Malm, 
Gbgs, Boh. Fn., p. 595; Winth., Naturh. Tidskr. Kbhvn, 
ser. 3, vol. XII, p. 53; Petersen, Vid. Meddel. Naturh. For. 
Kbhvn 1884, p. 159; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fisk., vol. HI, 
p. 459. 
Syngnathus acus (p. p.), Gthr, Cat. Brit. Mas., Fish., vol. 
VIII, p. 157; Coll., Forh. Vid. Selsk. Christ. 1874, Tillasgsh., 
p. 200; ibid. 1879, No. 1, p. 101; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., 
Irel., vol. II, p. 259, tab. CXLIV, fig. 2. 
Syngnathus Dumerilii , Dum., Hist. Nat. Poiss. (Nouv. Suit, a 
Buff.), torn. II, p. 556; Mor., Hist. Nat. Poiss. Fr., tom. 
II, p. 49. 
Ohs. As appears from the title of Plate XXVIII we originally 
held the same opinion as Gunther and Day, that this little Pipefish 
was merely a juvenile form, singular in certain respects, of the pre- 
ceding species. The collections made by Hedenborg in the Bospho- 
rus for the Royal Museum show, however, that Syngnathus rostellatus 
is certainly distinct from the Mediterranean species with which it has 
been identified by Gunther ( Syngn . hucculentus, Rathke; S. brevi- 
rosti'is, Hempr. and Ehkenb.). The latter species has a shorter snout 
and longer postorbital region etc., the length of the snout in all 
Hedenborg’s specimens being less than 47 % of that of the head, 
the postorbital length of the head equal to or at least more than 4 / 5 
of the length of the snout, and the least depth of the snout ] / 4 — 1 / 3 
of its length, while the depth of the body at the beginning of the 
tail is more than 1 / 5 (22 — 26 %) of the length of the base of the 
dorsal fin. These two species cannot, therefore, be ranged as mutually 
complementary forms of transition to Syngnathus acus. Furthermore, 
in 1842 the Royal Museum received through Mr. Pontin, Member of 
the Swedish Medical Council, a thing previously unknown, to the best 
of our knowledge, namely a young specimen 155 mm. long of the 
Atlantic Syngn. acus, taken “by a Dutch captain, probably in the 
North Sea.” This specimen has 64 (20 + 44) rings on the body; 
a Malm, 1. c. 
b Sometimes 4, according to Lilljeborg and Nilsson. 
