240 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
The Sea-horses have a still more eccentrically modified form, inasmuch as the body is 
thrown into a series of curves, the head being bent upon the trunk in a manner suggestive 
of the head and neck of the horse; hence the name of the group. The tail, which lacks the 
membranous portion, or fin, can be spirally coiled, and is used as an organ of prehension, 
and on this account is unique amongst fishes. Gripping the stems of seaweeds with this tail, 
and swaying the body to and fro among the vegetation, the fish is rendered comparatively incon- 
spicuous, the lines of the body being broken up by numerous more or less filamentous pro- 
cesses, which in one species, the Fucus-ltke Sea-HORSE, become excessively developed, forming 
long, frond-like blades. These, streaming in the water, both by their shape and coloration 
render the resemblance to the vegetable growths in which the animal hides so perfect that 
detection is almost impossible. Thus they furnish one of the most remarkable examples of 
adaptation to the environment amongst living animals. The males of most sea-horses, like the 
pipe-fishes, carry the eggs and young in a pouch on the abdomen, but in the species just 
mentioned the eggs are embedded in the soft skin on the under surface of the tail. 
Sea-horses swim with the body more or less vertical, the motive power being supplied 
by rapid vibration of the back-fin. Both pipe-fishes and sea-horses occur in British seas, the 
first being the more common. 
Pheti hy H. V, Letimanv\ Tori 
COFFER-FISHES 
Coffer-fishes ha-ve the body encased in a hard shell of closely fitting plates, leaving only the tail and fins free to move 
The COMB-GILLED FiSHES, to which we come next, are divided into two families, whose 
members are as remarkable for their e.xtraordinary shape as are the tuft-gilled forms just 
discussed. The abnormal shapes which mark out certain fishes so conspicuously from the more 
normal and typical forms are generally regarded as adaptations, serving to ensure concealment, 
to ward off attack, or to effect the capture of prey otherwise unattainable. Instances illustrating 
all three of these ends are furnished by these two groups of the tuft- and comb-gilled fishes. 
The File-fishes and Coffer-fishes, which form the first of the two families, present 
considerable variation in shape as well as in the covering of the body, which may be naked, 
covered with rough scales or bony spines, or invested in a complete bony cuirass. 
The file-fishes are represented by numerous species, the typical one being known also as 
the Trigger-fish, on account of an armature of spines on the top of the back. These spines 
are three in number; the first is very strong, roughened like a file — hence the name File- 
fish — and hollowed out behind to receive the second much smaller spine, which has a 
projection in front at its base, fitting into a notch in the first. Thus these two spines can 
only be raised or depressed simultaneously, and the first cannot be forced down unless the 
second has been previously depressed. These fishes have very powerful teeth, to break off 
pieces of coral, which form a large part of their diet. They also destroy a large number of 
shell-fish, and work great destruction amongst pearl-oysters. Frequently these fishes, when 
eaten, prove highly poisonous, from having fed on poisonous corals, jelly-fish, or decomposing 
substances. 
