PLATE LVI. 
Of the British Syngnathi, Mr. Pennant mentions four kinds, 
namely, the Longer Pipe-Fish : the Shorter Pipe-Fish, under 
which is comprehended the two Linnaean species, Typhle and Acus ; 
and the Little Pipe-Fish. The shorter Pipe-fish is the species under 
consideration. 
“ This,” says Mr. Pennant, “ is shorter and thicker than the 
longer Pipe-fish, yet I have seen one of the length of sixteen inches. 
The middle of the body in some, is hexangular, in others, heptan- 
gular. Linnasus constitutes two species of them, his Syngnathus 
Typhle, and Syngnathus Acus, but we join with Doctor Gronovius, 
in thinking them only varieties of the same fish.” 
Those two kinds being found occasionally together, have been 
considered as appertaining, to the same species, by others, beside Gro- 
novius, and Pennant. But it is scarcely any longer a matter of 
opinion widi many, they are pretty generally admitted by Ichthyolo- 
. ■ , . . — -ai 
inattention of the designer. This precludes the possibility of quoting them as syno- 
nyms with confidence. From the position of the angulated hinds, indeed, when sub- 
jected to the eye of the artist, except in a profile view, the anal fin must be ne- 
cessarily concealed beneath the abdomen: but the. omission, or misrepresentation of 
the other fins are not excusable on this account. 
The indefinite figure (No. 61, of Pennant’s Zoology,) in all probability had lost the 
pectoral fins, since the description we suppose to relate to this figure, (No. 60.) speak* 
of those fins, as does also the description (No. 61.) to which that figure refers. Bloch 
is persuaded, that Osbeclc has misled Linnreus, in describing his species Pelagicus with 00 ** 
an anal fin, conceiving that part to have been accidentally destroyed. In this particular 
■we have endeavoured to shew that Bloch is not correct, but in the present circumstance 
it proves how easily one species may be mistaken for another, when their specific®* 
distinction is taken chiefly from the fins only. 
