Tanks No. 21 and 22. 
81 
seen swimming or resting together and billing each other like a pair of 
turtle-doves. The eggs as soon as laid are received by the male 
animal ; which carries them about in a pouch on its ventral surface until 
the young are fully developed. As his family become more and more lively 
within the pouch, they cause so much irritation that the father con¬ 
siders it time to get rid of them; this he does by successive abrupt 
bendings of that part of the body which bears the pouch. At each 
Fig. 139. Syngnathus acus, Y 2 nat. size. Tanks 21 and 22. 
bend the pouch opens and a number of small beings are expelled, se¬ 
parating immediately and swimming about very actively; their size is about 
a sixth to a quarter of an inch. — Economically the Sea-horse is of no 
value whatever. It seems to have no enemies in the sea; in the Aqua¬ 
rium, at least, where it has been kept with all sorts of animals, it is 
never touched. 
To the Lophobranchii belongs also the Pipe-fish or Needle-fish, 
Syngnathus (Fig. 139 ; also in Tanks 21 and 22). They live in the beds 
of Posidonia and resemble most accurately, both in shape and colouring, 
the dying leaves of the latter. The male of this animal also takes care 
of the eggs till they are hatched. 
The freely swimming fish to which we shall now turn contain most 
of the well known sea fish. They pass most of their life floating or 
Fig. 140. Labrus festivus, I/2 nat. size. Tank 5. 
swimming, and thus prove that they have a complete mastery over the 
element in which they live. But a number of them also frequent the 
6 
