8YNGNATHTIS. 
In addition to the general characters of the family given above, this 
genus has an elongated body; pectoral, dorsal, and caudal tin, and a 
slight anal or ventral; in the male a pouch behind the vent, marked 
by a longitudinal sht. 
GREATER PIPEFISH. 
GREATER SEA AGGER. 
Sijngnafhus acus. 
If « 
•< tt 
Bondeletius gives characteristic likenesses of S. acus and also of S. 
Typhl'e. 
The singular conformation of these fishes, with some peculiar- 
ities of their habits, and especially their manner of producing 
their young, have been noticed from remote ages; but of the 
particulars of the last-named proceeding the most erroneous 
opinions continued to be held to a very recent date. Ihe 
naturalist Pallas ventured the opinion that each individual was 
possessed of a community of sexes; and in Schneider’s edition 
of the remains of Bloch, he arrives at the conclusion that all 
the individual examples known were females; so that the males 
of the present species and, we suppose, of the wide-nosed, next 
to be described, were yet to be discovered. But a generally 
received idea among naturalists was the pardonable one of the 
confounding one sex with the other; to which was added a 
large amount of uncertainty as regarded the actual proceeding 
in the evolution of the young. ^ 
Aristotle had observed of the fish which he called Belone, 
that there was a cavity on the lower part of the body behind 
Linn^us. Cuvibe. 
Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 175. 
Jenyns; Manual, p. 484. 
Y.VREELL; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 433. 
