238 



Phthinobranchii 



tail of a sea-horse. Most of the living species of the sea-horse 

 belong to the genus Hippocampus. These little creatures 



have the egg-sac of the male under 

 the abdomen. They range from 

 two inches to a foot in length and 

 some of the many species may be 

 found in abundance in every warm 

 sea. Some cling by the tails to 

 floating seaweed and are swept to 

 great distances ; others cling to eel- 

 grass and live very near the shore. 

 The commonest European species 

 is Hippocampus hippocampus. Most 

 abundant on our Atlantic coast is 

 Hippocampus hudsonius. Hippo- 

 campus coronatus is most common 

 in Japan. The largest species are 

 Hippocampus ingens of Lower Cali- 

 fornia and Hippocampus kelloggi 

 in Japan. Many species, especially 

 of the smaller ones, have the spines 

 of the bony plates of the body 

 ending in fleshy flaps. These are 

 sometimes so enlarged as to simu- 

 late leaves of seaweed, thus serving 

 for the efficient protection of the 

 species. These flaps are developed 

 to an extreme degree in Phyl- 

 lopteryx eques, a pipefish of the East Indies. 

 No fossil sea-horses are known. 



The following account of the breeding-habits of our smallest 

 sea-horse (Hippocampus zostera?) was prepared by the writer 

 for a book of children's stories: 



" He was a little bit of a sea-horse and his name was Hippo- 

 campus. He was not more than an inch long, and he had a 

 red stripe on the fin on his back, and his head was made of bone 

 and it had a shape just like a horse's head, but he ran out to a 

 point at his tail, and his head and his tail were all covered with 

 bone. He lived in the Grand Lagoon at Pensacola in Florida, 



PIG. 189. Sea-horse, Hippocampus 

 hudsonius Dekay. Virginia. 



