360 
SNAKE PIPEFISH. 
loosely from the vent a memhvanous tube, an inch and three I 
fourths in length, of which I suppose the use to be the ' f 
distribution of the grains of spawn. • ' || 
Allowing for a considerable difference of size, there is con- & 
siderable likeness between the Ocean Pipefish and the present ■ ||| 
species; and yet even at first sight they are readily distinguished; 
since the compressed form of the former is very different from ^ j 
the rounded shape of the body of the latter. The presence or I > 
absence of a very small tail is le.ss to be depended on, as I 
have known it absent, perhaps broken off, in the Ocean Pipe- , 
fish, but the presence of a thin membrane, more or less broad, 
is a conspicuous feature in the last-named fish; and their 
relative proportions are very different. In the Ocean Pipefish 
the middle of the length is at the first fourth portion of the | 
dorsal fin, and considerably in advance of the vent; while in 1 
the Snake Pipefish the middle of the length is more than the 
same proportion behind the vent. Prom the vent to the slender 
extremity is about one portion and a half of the distance from 
the vent to the snout. The origin of the dorsal fin is at 
one third of the whole length, and die middle of the body is I 
behind the whole of this fin. ihe colour of this fish is a pale | 
yellow, vith sometimes a pink line from the eye to the snout. 
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