314 
LITTLE FOLKS 
After all these great round fellows, I think a slim fish will 
make a pleasant variety, and here's the slimmest I can find — the 
Pipe Fish, or Needle Fish, as he is sometimes called. 
He is a droll fellow, and performs some curious antics. Some- 
times he will rush through the water like a race horse, examining 
every crack and crany he comes to, and then he will amuse him- 
self by standing on his head awhile, blowing holes in the sand on 
the bottom. He is usually about eighteen inches long; but he has 
smaller relatives. 
There is the Snake Pipe Fish, about fourteen inches long and 
the size of a goose-quill, and the Worm Pipe Fish which I believe 
is the smallest kind. This one has very amusing ways in an aqua- 
rium. Its eyes are beautiful, and move independently of each other, 
like the chameleon and the sea horse. It has also a prehensile 
tail ; that is, it curls around a weed and holds on while its body 
waves back and forth. When it gets tired, it hides under the 
weeds. 
Some of the Pipe Fishes have a pocket in the skin in which 
to bring up their babies, as I told you the sea horse has. 
