Phthinobranchii 453 
tail of a sea-horse. Most of the living species of the sea-horse 
belong to the genus Hippocampus. These little creatures 
have the egg-sac of the male under 
the abdomen. They range from 
two inches to a foot in length and 
some of the many species may be 
found in abundance in every warm 
sea. Some cling by the tails to 
floating seaweed and are swept to 
great distances; others cling to eel- 
grass and live very near the shore. 
The commonest European species 
is Hippocampus hippocampus. Most 
abundant on our Atlantic coast is 
Hippocampus hudsonius. Hippo- 
campus coronatus is most common 
in Japan. The largest species, ten 
inches long, are Hippocampus in- 
gens of Lower California and kel- 
loggt in Japan. Many species, es- 
pecially of the smaller ones, have 
the spines of the bony plates of the 
body ending in fleshy flaps. These 
are sometimes so enlarged as to 
simulate leaves of seaweed, thus 
2 serving for the efficient protection 
Hig. 358,—Sea-horse, Hippocampus Of the species. These flaps are 
Saree ee EA developed to an extreme degree in 
Phyllopteryx eques, a pipefish of the East Indies. 
No fossil sea-horses are known. 
The following account of the breeding-habits of our smallest 
sea-horse (Hippocampus zostere) was prepared by the writer 
for a book of children’s stories: 
“He was a little bit of a sea~-horse and his name was Hippo- 
campus. He was not more than an inch long, and he had a 
red stripe on the fin on his back, and his head was made of bone 
and it had ashape just like a horse’s head, but he ran out to a 
point at his tail, and his head and his tail were all covered with 
bone. He lived in the Grand Lagoon at Pensacola in Florida, 
