[166] 

 By Samuel Lockwood, 



THE July number of the American Natiiralist for 1867 con- 

 tains my article, "The Sea-Horse and its Young." Although 

 the result of a long study of living specimens of this eccen- 

 tric fish, yet some questions remain unanswered. At the time 

 mentioned I was living at Keyport, on Raritan Bay. Early in 

 1870 my residence was changed to Freehold, fourteen miles 

 inland ; hence it has happened that specimens sent me have suc- 

 cumbed before reaching my home. A happy exception occurred 

 November i, 1884, in the arrival from Shark River of a fine large 

 female. Hippocampus heptagonus, Rafin. As the subject of my 

 article in 1867 was a male, I prized my new pet highly. 



With an aquarium devoted entirely to this specimen, I set 

 about studying her peculiarities. She had the same habit of con- 

 verting her tail into a prehensile organ, and so would coil the tip 

 around a tuft of sea- lettuce, and, with the pretty dorsal fin in 

 movement like an undulating ribbon, would sway to and fro, keep 

 ing the body erect. The sight of the sea-horse alive in the water 

 is always pretty, although quite grotesque, for its action differs so 

 greatly from that of other fishes, which are prone, and usually 

 move in a line parallel to the bed of the water, while, as a child 

 would express it, the sea-horse swims standing up on its tail. The 

 crested head is erect, the action, though stiff, is graceful, not unlike 

 the knightly steeds on the chessboard, very quaint yet comely. 



I had through all those years desired to see the giving of the 

 spawn by the female and the taking of it by the male ; for, as 

 shown in that article of 1867, the male Hippo is not only father 

 but nurse to the young. In his front, just a little higher than the 

 vent, is a sac, into which he receives the eggs of the female, and 

 in which he hatches them. My desire was to see the method of 

 taking the eggs into this pouch. Did he put them in or did she ? 

 Despairing now of ever seeing them in apposition, I must describe 

 the act as I think it does take place. 



* From The Aincricaii Naturalist. 



