GREATER PIPEFISH. 
353 
tliat there had heen three separate deposits, so that while 
some were in one portion of the pouch almost fully developed, 
the latest barely displayed the existence of the eye and the 
snout. Yet such is not always the case, and perhaps not 
often; and the following arc the notes of my own examination; 
with the additional remark, that the pregnancy has been found 
so late as the month of September; although it has not extended 
into October. When, in April, the pouch was found filled with 
ova, the edges of the slit or opening were united together by 
thin fibres, as they were before any had been received. The 
grains were then all closely fastened together by a covering 
membrane, and also attached to the walls of the pouch both at 
the sides and back, but not in front; and each one lay in a 
cell, the borders of which passed across, with scarcely a mark 
longitudinally. Each egg was formed of a transparent fluid, 
and on one side was a red mark in distinct grains of different 
sizes, in small proportion to the whole bulk. As the grains lie 
in the pouch, this red spot is in every instance directed towards 
the opening; and on a short exposure to the warm sunshine 
the whole substance became solid without shrinking. When 
further grown the body of the fish is seen curved into a circle, 
and the head projecting with a short snout in the middle. At 
a still further growth the ovum remains attached to the body; 
but even when fully developed a kind of attachment still 
continues between the parent and the young, for in case of 
alarm they fly again to the shelter of the pouch, and are readily 
received into it. 
While searching for food among the overhanging weeds and 
crevices of rocks and stones which they frequent, every attitude 
is adopted, with the head up or down in each kind of the 
perpendicular, and with much contortion; while the snout is 
thrust into the chinks where the prey is likely to be met with. 
The food generally appears to be the smaller kinds of crustacean 
animals; but not unfrequently 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 could have 
been made to pass between the jaws and through the gullet; 
and it is only the remarkable structure observed in these parts 
that will explain the possibility. This structure is complex in 
a very high degree, by an arrangement of jointed bones, 
VOL. IV. s z 
