THE PIPE-FISH AND SEA-HORSES.
PIPE FISH.
The second division of the bony Fishes is quite small, including only the Pipe-fish and the Sea-horses. These are distinguished by having the gills divided into small round tufts and arranged in pairs—a structure that is peculiar and different from that of any other Fishes. These gills are enclosed under a large cover, which leaves only a small hole for the escape of water which has served the purposes of respiration.
The Pipe-fishes belonging to this family possess a very strange organic peculiarity. Their bodies are long, slender, and slightly tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise; and the skin in swelling forms a pouch near the tail into which the eggs glide to be hatched, and which is afterwards a shelter for the young.
The Trumpet Pipe-fish has a small head and a long cylinder-shaped nose, slightly raised at the end, and terminating in a very small mouth without teeth. It is generally found in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
There is still another Pipe-fish—the Fistularia—not often classed with this family, but found among the spiny-finned Fishes, with an extremely long nose in front of the head; this forms a long tube, in fact, at the end of which is the mouth. This species is common at the Antilles. It reaches a length of about three feet. It feeds upon crustaceans and small Fishes, which it drags from the interstices of the rocks and stones by means of its long pipe.