116 THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FISHES OF ESSEX.
(1869, p. 1520) a record is given of several which were caught
in the Thames as high as Woolwich.
Mr. E. A. Fitch says (Essex Nat., vol. i., p. 218) one
weighing 35 lbs. was captured on October 26th, 1887, at
Beeleigh, and the capture of two off Clacton is recorded
(Essex Nat., vol. ii., p. 6). About the middle of February,
1894, a police-constable named Harrington shot one, which
weighed nearly 30 lbs., from the sea-wall of Foulness Island
(Essex County Chronicle, February 23rd, 1894).
Order IV. LOPHOBRANCHII, Cuvier.
Family SYNGNATHIDAE, Linn.
Genus Syphonostoma, Roup.
Syphonostoma typhle, Kaup. Broad-nosed Pipe-fish.
This is very common on our Zostera-covered shores. It
is taken very frequently by the shrimp- and eel-trawlers.
Genus Syngnathus, Artedi.
Syngnathus acus, Linn. Greater Pipe-fish.
This, the commonest of the family, is found on all parts of
our coast, but more frequently on the beds of the sea-wrack
(Zostera marina), to the tufts of which it clings. It is,
therefore, constantly captured in the eel-trawls, and forms one
out of the mass of living creatures brought by these nets to
the surface.
Genus NEROPHIA, Rophinesque.
Nerophis aequoreus, Kaup. Ocean, or Snake, Pipe-fish.
Although not so common a fish as the preceding, this is
found in some quantity in the eel-trawls. Day (Fishes of