CHAPTER VII 
PIPE-FISHES, SEJ-HORSES, GLOBE-FISHES, SUN-FISHES, AND THEIR ALLIES 
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 
T he fishes described in the present chapter form two well-marked groups, known as 
the Tuft-GILLED and the COMB-GILLEI) FiSHES, on account of the peculiar arrange- 
ment of the gills, or breathing-organs; they are also remarkable for their peculiar 
shapes. The breast-fins are present in all; but in three of the families the second pair 
of fins, corresponding to the hind limbs of the higher animals, are wanting. 
The Tuft-GILLED Fishes 
are represented by two families 
— theM.viLED Tube-mouths 
and the PiPE-FISHES and SEA- 
HORSES, all of which hav^e 
undergone very considerable 
modification of form, the body 
being encased in mail-like 
armour, whilst the jaws are 
toothless and produced into 
a long tube. 
The first family is com- 
posed of a few small fishes 
from the Indian Ocean. 
Grotesque in appearance, they 
are remarkable also for the 
fact that the female takes 
sole charge not only of the 
eggs, which are exceedingly 
minute, but the young fry 
also. Only one other fish is 
known in which the care of the eggs and young is undertaken by the female : this is one 
of the Cat-fishes, described in a later chapter. The eggs in the Tube-mouths are carried 
in a pouch formed by the union of the inner borders of the ventral fins, which are long and 
broad. For the retention of the eggs within the pouch its wall develops long filaments, which 
serve the purpose of slender fingers. 
The second of these families contains the PiPE-FiSHES and Sea-HORSES. They are small 
marine fishes, inhabiting the seas of tropical and temperate regions wherever there is sufficient 
vegetation to offer shelter, for they are peculiarly defenceless creatures. They po.ssess but 
feeble powers of swimming, and consequently are not seldom borne away by strong currents 
far out to sea or on to distant shores. Their method of locomotion is, indeed, quite different 
from that of other fishes, as they progress neither b}^ undulatory motions of the body nor by 
powerful strokes of the tail, but by wriggling in the case of the pipe-fishes, or vibrating motions 
of the back-fin in the sea-horses. 
The long, semi-cylindrical PiPE-FiSHES, partly on account of their peculiar form and colour, 
and partly on account of their swaying motions, so closely resemble the fronds of seaweed 
238 
Pnoti) by ji. S. Rudland & Sons 
GLOBE-FISH 
From the formidable armature of spines, known also as the Sea-hedgehog 
