LIFE in STORY OF SEA-HORSES— (ULL. 



807 



lor faculty, but a new function — prehension— results from its power 

 to curl inward, and, to some extent, sideways. 



The species are numerous, and one or more may he found in ahnost 

 every tropical and temperate sea. Somewhere near three dozen spe- 

 cies have heen described, and of these one {///'p/Hx-a/iipu.s /u'jjpoca/npus 

 or aiitujuoruni) is a common European tish, and half a dozen are inhab- 

 itants of north oi' middle American seas. One of them {Hippocain- 

 pi/s hudsonim) extends northward in the Atlantic as far as Cape Cod, 

 and another {Hippocampus liKfrus)^ one of tbe laro-est of the oeuus, in 

 the Pacilic to San Diej^o. 



Strongly marked and ))izurre as is the form, the fishes nevertheless 

 are not conspicuous in the 

 midst of their natural sur- 

 roundings, and indeed the lit- 

 tle animals appear to be able 

 to readily adapt themselves 

 to their environment. Kent 

 (1883) tells that "some very 

 extraordinary colored speci- 

 mens" of the coimnon Medi- 

 terranean species {Uippocam- 

 pus hippocmnpuH) were given 

 to him; some were '"bright 

 red, others pale pink, bright 

 or light yellow, and even 

 almost pure white, with many 

 other interblending shades. 

 Such colors had apparently 

 been assumed b}' the fish in 

 keei)ing with and as a means 

 of concealment among the 

 brilliant vegetation and zoo- 

 phytic growth indigenous to 

 the locality from whence they 

 were derived. These tints in confinement gradually disappeared, until 

 the tish had assumed the normal light-brown orsp(H-kled hue l)y which 

 thev are generallv characterized." 



Br- 



"-JT 



Fig. 4.— Sea-hokse (Hu'i'ocAMPr.. r.AMii.osus). Two 



MIDDLE SIDE-SHIELDS SHOWING MANNER OF INTER- 

 LOCKING BUTTRESSES ( A'. R.). (AFTER SCHAFF.) 



II. 



The attitudes and movements of the sea horses are eminently char- 

 acteristic. The most frequent is a state of rest, with the tail wound 

 around the stem of a plant or some other substance and the body is 

 then carried nearly or quite erect. Such is the most frequent position, 

 but notwithstanding the apparent rigidity of the cuirass, almost every 

 other attitude consistent with such a form mav be assumed. The 



