222 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. > 



Hippocampus Hudsonius, Dekay. 

 Short-nosed Sea-Horse. 

 (Plate XXXIII. Fig. 4.) 



Syngnathns hippocampus, Sea-Horse Pipe-fish, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., i. p. 475. 

 Hippocampus brevirostris, Short-nosed Sea-Horse, Storer, Report, p. 167. 

 Hippocampus Hudsonius, Hudson River Sea-Horse, Dekat, Report, p. 322, pi. 53, fig. 171. 

 Hippocampus brevirostris, Linsley, Cat. of Fishes of Connecticut. 

 Hippocampus Hudsonius, Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, II. p. 491. 

 « " " Synopsis, p. 239. 



Color. Yellowish-brown throughout. 



Description. Body heptagonal, composed of twelve segments, which are armed on 

 each side with three rows of prominent spines, and a single row of similar spines 

 are noticed beneath. The greatest depth of the body is across from the dorsal fin. 

 The length of the head is more than one fifth the* entire length of the fish. The 

 head is compressed upon the opercula and surmounted above by a bony prominence 

 which expands into five points, four lateral and one posterior. Behind this are 

 situated the branchial orifices. A short spine is seen at the base of the snout, in 

 front of the eyes ; on each side of this is a minute spine ; directly above each eye is 

 a larger spine ; and at the posterior angle of the eye is a very short one : beneath 

 the eye, on the throat, are two small ones on each side. The snout is straight and 

 tubular, and measures ten lines to the anterior base of the opercula. The eyes are 

 large. The tail is quadrangular, about half of its entire length ; it is divided into 

 thirty-four segments, and gradually terminates in a point. 



The dorsal fin is situated upon a slight projection of the dorsum, composed of 

 three segments, at the origin of the tail. 



The fin rays, as well as can be determined with the specimen much contracted and 

 otherwise injured by drying, are as follows: — D. 18 or 20. P. 14 or 15. A. 3 or 4. 



Length, five inches. 



Remarks. In my " Report " I described this species from the only specimen I 

 had seen. It was found by Dr. Yale upon the shore at Holmes's Hole, and was sent 

 by him to the cabinet of the Boston Society of Natural History. He observed, in 

 a letter to me, " he never knew one to be taken alive, yet they are frequently found 

 on the shore." The specimen described was a female. As I have seen no specimen 

 since that was noticed, I can only redescribe it, and accompany the description with 

 a fio-ure, which, considering the dried condition of the fish, is quite accurate. 



I was undoubtedly in error in considering this species as the brevirostris, and 

 with pleasure adopt the specific name of my lamented friend, Dr. Dekay. 



Massachusetts, Storer. Connecticut, Linsley. New York, Mitchill, Dekay. 



