186 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



fifteen inches in length. The aspect of this species when swimming in a semi-vertical 

 position, as shown in the illustration, is remarkably suggestive of a hopping kangaroo, 

 the two ventral appendages corresponding with the marsupial's fore-paws. 



The South Australian Sea-dragon, Phyllopteryx eques, which occupies the central 

 and most extensive area of our coloured plate, attains to a greater length than the 

 Tasmanian type by several inches. Its most remarkable peculiarity, however, as 

 indicated in the figure given, is the more angular contour of the body and the 

 wonderfully luxuriant development upon it of outstanding spines and membranous 

 leaf-like appendages. These structures bear a striking resemblance to the fronds of 

 the seaweeds among which it commonly takes up its abode, and may be regarded as 

 a special adaptation to ensure the animal's effectual concealment amid its thoroughly 

 harmonious environment. In this manner bunches of a finer species of seaweed 

 appear to spring from the head, while the broader leaf-like fronds of a larger variety 

 grow seemingly from all of the more prominent angles of the creature's body. In 

 addition to these there is a series of flattened plumeless spines along both the 

 dorsal and ventral surfaces, which present a strong general resemblance to newly 

 sprouting algal growths. Writing of this species of Sea-dragon, as illustrated in Dr. 

 Gunther's " Introduction to the Study of Fishes," page 682, the Eev. Tennison Woods 

 remarks, "It is the ghost of a sea-horse with its winding sheet in ribbons around it, 

 and, as a ghost, it seems in the very last stage of emaciation, literally all skin and 

 grief." In the figure alluded to, drawn from a specimen abnormally shrivelled up 

 by conservation in strong alcohol, the spectre-like comparisons are by no means 

 inappropriate. In its native element, however, resplendent in its natural colouring, in 

 which various shades of light crimson or lilac predominate, bravely bedecked with 

 flowing frills and furbelows, and with resplendent jewel-like eyes of sapphire blue, 

 this fish constitutes one of nature's most exquisitely wonderful productions, capable 

 of and distinctly manifesting the fullest capacity for life's enjoyment. 



The fish at the bottom of Chromo-Plate VI. is a type, Solengognathus 

 spinosissimus, that is intermediate between the slender Pipe-fishes represented by a 

 species of Syngnathus towards the left-hand top corner and the Sea-horses, 

 Hippocampi. Like the latter, it has a prehensile tail, with at the same time a 

 gorgeous scarlet and yellow livery resembling that of the Sea-dragons. The form 

 figured is occasionally taken with Phyllopteryx foliatus in Tasmanian waters, while 

 a second species, S. Hardivickii, occurs as far north as Houtman's Abrolhos on the 

 west, and Moreton Bay on the eastern Australian sea-board. 



