HIPPOCAMPUS RAMULOSUS. \) 



standing straight out at right angles with the sides of the head. Again, on the 

 complicated bony occipital crest, or pair of tubercles, is placed another pair of 

 antlers, precisely like the former ; their stems forked or divaricating laterally 

 upwards, but adnate and confluent at the base : their branches erect, and blended 

 or confused to the eye into a single tuft by the presence of smaller shorter ones 

 placed on the other tubercles or bony prominences behind them on the nape 

 or neck. Opercle plain, even, or not, at least whilst recent, obviously striate ; 

 furnished with one or two small tufts or cilice, and sprinkled with white granules. 

 The branchial openings are two round holes or orifices, placed close together high 

 up, almost on the nape. 



Neck compressed, short, arched. Body compressed, heptangular, narrow up- 

 w^ards ; the belly downwards very prominent ; from the nape to the origin of the 

 tail banded by eleven circular or transverse ridges, crossing at right angles the 

 seven more distinct and prominent longitudinal ones, which rise into bony tubercles 

 at their intersection with the former. Of these seven, two are dorsal, two on each 

 side lateral, and one ventral, forming the outline of the belly. The two dorsal 

 ridges are most prominent, approximate, with the space between them hollowed into 

 a naiTow groove or channel ; and on each intersection with the transverse ridges, 

 stands a branched tuft or cilia, smaller, but otherwise resembling those on the 

 head, and forming a thick mane all the way from the head, or occiput, to the dor- 

 sal fin. The two side ridges are similarly furnished ; but the tufts are much 

 smaller, irregularly palmate, and quite distinct or separate from each other, the 

 ridges themselves being remote ; the uppermost is nearest the back. The seventh 

 abdominal or ventral ridge is naked. 



Tail abruptly contracted to half the depth only of the body, quadrangular, sub- 

 compressed; the sides slightly convex, and deeper than the dorsal, or even the ventral 

 faces, which are both channelled or hollow; the dorsal channel being close and nar- 

 row ; the ventral wide and open : its tip curled in, obtuse ; with about thirty-five 

 transverse rings or ridges, each giving off at its angle of intersection with the 

 two dorsal angles, a palmate rather than tufted cilia, on a stout, thick, fleshy 

 stalk or pedicle, forming a thick fringe or mane, in continuation of that of the body, 

 reaching from its origin nearly to the tip ; the cilice becoming gradually shorter or 

 smaller towards the latter. A few of the anterior rings or angles only of the two 

 ventral ridges are produced into irregular, abortive, small, palmate cilice, for a little 

 way from nearly the base of the tail ; the two first rings being naked. 



The whole surface of the head, body, and sides of the tail, is rough, with minute 

 raised points or gi-anulations, approaching to the form of short simple cilice. 



Dorsal fin curvilineally oblong, about twice and a-half as long as high, even, of 

 equal breadth or height, placed just at the hinder end of the body, on a sort 

 of raised hump or ridge at the bottom of the back. Anal fin minute, fan or 

 rather wedge-shaped, placed just at the lower angle of the belly, at the origin or 

 base of the tail. Pectoral fins oblong, seated at the origin of the neck, close behind 

 the hinder edge of the opercle ; the line of their base is vertical or transverse to the 

 neck, as in most fishes, and longer than the fin is broad or deep : it is thickened or 

 raised, forming a kind of pedestal to the fin. 



The general tint is a dull flesh-colour ; the cheeks or opercles, tip of the snout, 

 space just before the eyes, and under parts, are paler and brighter than the rest, or 

 w^hitish ; the sides of the body mottled, or varied here and there with lilac or livid- 

 blue. The tail and all the branched cilice are brighter, clearer, and more vmiform 

 flesh-colour. Through the lens, the sides appear most beautifully speckled thickly 

 with minute miniaceous or orange dots on a livid-blue ground; and the whole sur- 

 face of the head and body, especially that of the snout and opercles, is spangled 



