PLATE LVI. 
Syngnathus corpore medio hexagono, cauda pinnata. Art. Gen . I* 
$yn. 1. sp. 3. 
Sea-Adder. Borl. Corn. p. 267. pi. 26. /. 12. 
Shorter Pipe-fish. Penn. Brit. Zool. t. 3. p. 140. 61. 
Le Syngnathe T’kompette. Buff, de Deterville, v. 7. p. 240. 
The Syngnathi appear to be more imperfectly defined by natura- 
lists than almost any other genera of fishes. With respect to the 
British species in particular, nothing can be more ambiguous. Whe- 
ther we advert to the days of Ray, and Willughby, or Sibbald ; to 
Borlase, or the late Mr. Pennant, the obscurity prevails in an equal 
measure. Linnaeus does not escape the critical censure of Dr. Bloch 
for his erroneous conception of certain species, and it might be easy 
to prove, as well as intimate, that Bloch himself has rather increased 
than cleared up the confusion Linnaeus created. To enter into an 
investigation of all the species described by Linnaeus, his successor 
Gmelin, or by Bloch, would be irrelative to our present purpose. 
The French naturalists, among whom Lacepede stands most distin- 
guished, have endeavoured to restore the arrangement of the species of 
this genera to lucid order, but after all there are uncertainties re- 
maining to be overcome. Several of the species described by early 
writers are far from being correctly known. Nor can we be certain, 
in some instances, whether what are now considered as varieties, may 
not in reality be distinct from the species to which they are supposed 
to be connected ; or whether among the number of those described 
as species, some have not been too hastily assumed, and may prove 
hereafter to be varieties only. 
