PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued I 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 Vol. 83 Washington : 1937 No. 2997 



EEVIEW OF THE SEAHORSES (HIPPOCAMPUS) FOUND 

 ON THE COASTS OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENTS 

 AND OF EUROPE ' 



By Isaac Ginsburg 



United States Bureau of Fisheries 



INTRODUCTION 



The peculiar little fishes known as seahorses in English-speaking 

 countries, or generally by a translation of that term in other countries, 

 have caught the popular fancy and attracted wide interest since 

 ancient times, because of their bizarre appearance. Recognizable 

 descriptions of seahorses may be traced back to the writings of the 

 ancients.^ Among the descriptions and even figured representations 

 of aquatic monsters by the old writers, one comes across such cir- 

 cumstantial accounts that it becomes evident that they really be- 

 lieved in the existence of such monsters. In some cases at least 

 they must have had in mind some hazy mem.ory of a seahorse. Even 

 in our sophisticated times the seahorse remains an object of absorbing 

 interest. Specimens are often sold as souvenirs and are sometimes 

 gilded and used as fobs for watch chains or for other ornamental 

 purposes. No less than the popular attraction is the scientific interest 

 in these fishes, because of their peculiar structure, their distinctive 

 mode of life, and their unusual method of reproduction. Their 

 peculiar, bony, jointed external skeleton, the shape of their head, 

 which markedly resembles, in miniature, that of a horse, and their 



1 Published by permission of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries. 



2 For a discussion of old accounts and figures of seahorses, see Eastman, Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 

 tor 1915, pp. 349-357, 4 pis., 1916. 



73864—37 1 497 



