most other animals as large which live by preying 

 are active, but this creature, in keeping with its 

 anomalous form, differs likewise from the ordinary 

 in its food habits. Because of the mere size of its 

 mouth, its food material perforce is proportionally 

 minute ; this consists mostly of very young shrimps^ 

 sand-fleas, copepods, and other small crustaceans 

 — occasionally also the drifting egg of a fish — and 

 it catches these in a curious manner indeed. 



Seeing its living morsel at rest on the bottom or 

 on a frond near-by, the sea-horse approaches 

 slowly, peering with head cocked first to one side 

 then to the other in the most ludicrous fashion of 

 a hen eyeing a doubtful caterpillar. Then when 

 within reach it will lie on its side or assume any 

 other convenient attitude and thrust its mouth 

 toward the desired object, whereupon that object 

 will suddenly disappear. There is no perceptible 

 movement of the hippocampid's jaws — the resting 

 crustacean has been sucked in so swiftly that its 

 transit escapes detection. 



II 



So much, then, for the dry details of anatomy 

 and the data of food and physiognomy. Let us re- 



[279] 



