counted in the confines of the paternal tank. These 

 were nearly completely developed, and each was 

 about a fourth of an inch long. Although partaking 

 of the general appearance of the parent, they dif- 

 fered from him in their proportions. The head was 

 large, bearing a broad abbreviated snout; the tail 

 was short and rounded. Besides, the armor plates 

 of the new-born babes were soft and somewhat 

 undefined. Yet immediately upon their freedom, 

 they began using their little tails, clinging to such 

 small objects as they chanced to encounter on their 

 independent way. With this freedom, too, the so- 

 licitude of the father ceases. Unlike certain of the 

 pipe-fishes (a group closely allied to the sea- 

 horse), which continue to foster their young by 

 readmittance to the paternal pouch after their 

 escape, the duty of the hippocampid parent, when 

 once the brood has passed beyond the portals, is at 

 an end. 



Difficult as it had been to keep the adult sea- 

 horse long alive, it was next to impossible to rear 

 the young. These began to die off rapidly; some, 

 so it seemed, died "a-bornin\" A few there were, 

 however, that lingered mysteriously on for several 

 months, but these, too, finally went the way of the 



[289] ' 



