HIPPOCAMPUS RAMULOSUS. T 



Their form is generally slender, with an elongated tail ; which, in the 

 Hippocampi, is inflexed, curled inwards, and prehensile. 



They are generally of small size, and they have scarcely any fleshy 

 muscle : whence they are nowhere used for food. From the tubular form 

 of the mouth, their own nourishment is probably much of the same kind 

 in all the species ; such as in certain SyngnatJii it has been discovered 

 to be, small marine animals, mollusca, worms, and eggs of fishes. These 

 are drawn up into the throat by suction, probably by dilatation of the 

 gullet. 



The anomalous structure of the branchiae and outer integument indicates 

 a departure from the true fishes ; such as their general form and aspect • 

 forcibly suggest. The bony fibrous skeleton retains, however, like the 

 rest of the internal anatomy, all the essential characters of the true fishes. 

 The tribe of Lophobraiichice, or Crest-gilled fishes, therefore, is well 

 placed by Cuvier as an aberrant group, by which he passes from the true 

 fishes to the still more anomalous Diodons, Balistse, Ostracions, &c. to 

 which, in the nature of their skin and singularity of form, they bear a near 

 affinity. 



The Hippocampi in these points, and in the produced muzzle, also bear 

 a sort of miniature resemblance to the Sturgeon ; of which they might be 

 conceived, if seen only when preserved, to be some dried distorted form. 

 It is. however, an error to attribute either the curled -up tail, or head bent 

 downwards so abruptly with the body, to contraction after death. The 

 tail is constantly incurved, and usually employed in a prehensile manner 

 for an anchor during life ; while the head is used in climbing as a stay or 

 hook to raise the body, and is quite immoveably bent down. 



In point of rarity, no less than elegance, H. ramulosus. Leach, is the 

 most interesting of its genus. An individual of unknown origin, existing 

 in the British Museum, has been long since imperfectly described and 

 figured by Leach, — from a discoloured and probably dried specimen. By 

 Willughby this species appears also earlier to have been observed ; 

 though he does not separate it from the common sort described by him, 

 H. brevirostris, Cuv. The following passage cannot but refer to H. ra- 

 mulosus, Leach, rather than to the former : — 



" Vidimus Venetiis hujus generis jubatum, nescimus an specie diversum, an 

 setate aut sexu tantum. Plerique enim juba carent, quantumvis RonJeletius 

 pilos in capitis vertice erectos omnibus tribuere videatur. Erat autem jubatus ille 

 quern Venetiis nacti sumus non jubatis quadruple fere major. In medio ventris 

 pinnulam seu membranam nigricantem observavimus ; ab omnibus in summo 

 capita et cervice majoribus eminentiis angularibus seu aculeis villi seu setee longse 

 dependebant jubse instar, non adeo tenues, (ut scribit Rondeletius,) ut non in 

 mortuis et exsiccatis sed in viventibus tantum appareant, verum crassiusculse et 

 facile conspicuae." — Will. Hist. Pise. p. 158. 



