‘ THE FISHES OF NEW JERSEY: 229 
Genus Hippocampus Rafinesque. 
The Sea Horses. 
Key to the species. 
a. Dorsal 19, on 3% + 0 rings; body mottled, not dotted. HUDSONIUS 
aa. Dorsal 17 or 18, on 2 caudal rings; light blue spots on head and snout. 
PUNCTULATUS 
~ Hippocampus hudsonius De Kay. 
BATE. 27. 
Sea Horse. Horse Fish. 
Head 17 in trunk measured over back from gill-opening; 
depth of trunk 15%; width of trunk 4; trunk 2 in tail; D. 19; 
A. 4; P. 15; rings 11 + 37; depth of head, at coronet, 134 in 
length; width of head 234; snout 234; eye 614; base of dorsal 
134; interorbital space 1% in eye. Body deep, trunk short and 
compressed. Tail tapering, quadrangular, and with rather robust 
point. Head deep, compressed. Snout a little long, and profile 
deeply concave posteriorly. Eye small, rounded, and a trifle 
anterior. Mouth small, terminal, superior, and with jaws con- 
spicuously protruding. Interorbital space forming isoceles tri- 
angle directed in front of eyes. Gill-opening small, lateral, open- 
ing upward, high and close to nape near nuchal keel. Coronet 
high, its upper surface concave, with 2 lateral and 1 posterior 
tubercles, also an elevated prominence springing from ridge in 
front furnished with a tubercle anteriorly. Below latter on each 
side of head a tubercle. Interorbital space with each edge of 
triangle continued as bony ridges till over eye posteriorly where 
they form a superorbital tubercle. Shoulder-girdle with 3 tu- 
bercles. Bones on head striate. Rings with concave surfaces 
with well-developed tubercles but becoming obsolete as they pro- 
gress on tail. Fins with simple rays, dorsal rather low, beginning 
in front of tenth ring and extending on second caudal ring. Anal 
small, short, on first caudal ring. Pectoral with a broad base, 
rays rather short. Dusky, nearly uniform. Dorsal with a dark 
submarginal band. Length about 6 inches. Beesley’s Point. 
