Fig. 361. The Trumpet Pipe-fish (Syngnathus).
These little cuirassed fishes consist of two genera, Syngnathus and Hippocampus. The Syngnathes, or pipe-fishes, possess a very curious organic peculiarity. Their bodies are long, slender, and slightly tapering, covered with plates set lengthwise, without ventrals; the skin, in swelling, forms under the belly or under the tail, according to the species, a pouch into which the eggs glide to be hatched, and which is afterwards a shelter for the young. Most of the species are strangers to European seas, but some few are found in the Channel. The Trumpet Pipe-fish (Fig. 361) has the head small, the muzzle long, nearly cylindrical, slightly raised at the end, and terminating in a very small mouth without teeth. The animal is about twenty inches long; its skin is of a yellowish colour varied with brown. It lives in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, where it is largely used by the fishermen in baiting their hooks. It is found in great abundance in the Atlantic between the Equator and the Western Isles.
Fig. 362. The Sea-horse (Hippocampus).
The Sea Horse (Hippocampus) is a small creature about the size of the engraving (Fig. 362); its head has a singular resemblance to that of the horse. The rings which constitute the integument of the body and tail have a close resemblance to the rings of some caterpillars. This curious combination of forms originated the name, Hippocampus, from ἵππος, horse, κάμπος, fish, adopted in very ancient times to designate this creature. It is found in the Atlantic, round the coast of Spain, the south of France, in the Mediterranean, and in the Indian Ocean. Mr. Lukis, who raised two females in captivity, describes their habits as follows:—"When they swim," he says, "they preserve a vertical position, but their tail seems on the alert to seize whatever it meets with in the water, clasping the stem of the rushes. Once fixed, the animal seems to watch attentively all the surrounding objects, and darts on any prey presenting itself with great dexterity. When one of them approaches the other, they interlace their two tails, and it is only after a struggle that they can separate again, attaching themselves by the lower part of the chin to some rush in order to release themselves. They have recourse to the same manœuvre when they wish to raise the body, or when they wish to wind their tail to some new object. Their two eyes seem to move independently of each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris is bright and edged with blue."
The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to sustain the body, not only in the water, but even in the air; they are, in fact, winged fishes, and probably originated the famous winged courser of mythology, after which they are sometimes named. They rarely exceed four inches in length; the body is covered with triangular scales, commonly of a bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes' eggs, and fragments of organic substances which they find in the far land at the bottom of the sea.
III. Malacopterygii.
The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays of the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or pectorals. They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes of the utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the cod, the salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, following Cuvier, subdivide them into three orders:—1. Apoda, without ventrals; 2. Sub-branchiati, ventrals under the pectorals; 3. Abdominales, having ventrals behind the pectorals.
1. APODA.