PIPE-FISHES. 
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wanting ; and the pectorals, when present, are 
very minute. 
Genus Hippocampus. (Linn.) 
The body in this singular genus is compressed 
or flattened laterally, and is much deeper than 
the tail ; the muzzle is narrow and tubular, with 
the mouth opening at the point nearly horizon- 
tally. The profile is angular ; there is one small 
dorsal, no caudal, and no ventrals ; small pec- 
torals, and a minute anal in the male only. The 
margins of the angular plates in which the body 
is encased are raised in ridges, and the angles 
form spines. The slender tail is prehensile, and 
enables the little fish to hold on, or to climb 
by the stalks of marine plants. Specimens are 
often dried as curiosities, and the head and fore- 
parts assuming somewhat of the figure of those 
of a miniature horse, they are commonly called 
Sea-horses. 
A little species, the Short-nosed Sea-horse 
{Hippocampus hremrostris^ Cuv.), is found, but 
in no abundance, on the shores of the British 
Islands. It is about five inches in length, of 
a pale ashy hue, with a changeable iridescence 
of flitting hues playing over its body, mingled 
with variable shades of blue : the eyes are pale 
yellow. 
The food of this, as of kindred species, is 
believed to consist of minute animals and spawn, 
which are supposed to be drawn up the tubular 
mouth, by the dilatation of the throat, on the 
same principle that water rushes up a syringe, 
when a vacuum is formed by a retraction of the 
