768 



SYNGNATHUS. 



ridges and tubercles with which it is beset to the very 

 tip. What with the prehensile tail, what with the 

 flexibility of the anterior part of the body, and the 

 angular projections on the cheeks, these animals are 

 not badly adapted for climbing. They can hold on 

 with the tail, and advance the body to its whole 

 length, hold on with the head, and again bring up 

 the tail, so that they can clamber about among the 

 seaweed something in the style of the small climbing 

 Sauria. It appears also that they can make use of 

 the unbending of the body and tail to give them a 

 rapid impetus through the water, in the same way 

 that an impetus is obtained by lobsters and various 

 other leaping Crustacea 



When they are dead, the body does not become 

 relaxed and straight as it is in most fishes. The 

 middle, where the dorsal fin is situated, bends slightly 

 inward as seen in profile ; and the flexible part of 

 the body bends in a curve toward the belly, till the 

 axis of the head is enclosed at considerably less than 

 a right angle to the axis of the body. The tail also 

 coils up into a spiral, toward the lower side of the 

 fish ; and the bending both of this and of the anterior 

 part are in the mesial plane of the body. This, with 

 the angular projections on the body which give it the 

 appearance of being made up of a series of flat plates, 

 soldered together at the ridges both longitudinal and 

 crosswise, make it look very unlike any ordinary fish, 

 and thus it is in request by collectors of natural 

 curiosities. 



! When in this bent or curled state it has, whether 

 viewed in profile or in front, some faint resemblance, 

 in the head and neck, to the same parts of a horse, 

 which is the cause of the name given to it. In the 

 profile the male has most of this resemblance, as the 

 posterior part of the head is not so deep in the sec- 

 tion as in the female. In both the curved part of 

 the body, as far as the commencement of the dorsal 

 fin, has a good deal both of the outline and the pecu- 

 liar curve of the neck of a horse ; and the front view 

 has perhaps more of this fanciful likeness ; but here 

 the resemblance ends, and the portion to the rear of 

 the dorsal has much more resemblance to the tail of 

 a saurian reptile. 



The mode of reproduction has not been actually 

 observed ; but from the structure of the animals, both 

 internal and external, there is no doubt of its being 

 in principle the same as in the Syngnathi. The fe- 

 males are at once distinguished from the males by the 

 more prominent outline of the belly, its more rapid 

 contraction posteriorly, arid the presence of a very 

 small anal fin near the angle at which the under line 

 of the body meets that of the tail. The specimens 

 having this form have been ascertained to be females, 

 by the fact of their containing ovaries and roe. The 

 males have the under line much less prominent, and 

 at the part corresponding to that where it begins its 

 sudden curvature toward the base of the tail in the 

 female, there is in the mule a sort of pouch consist- 

 ing of two side lobes, not with ridged plates like the 

 rest of the body, but smooth and flexible ; and there can 

 be no doubt that these form a pouch in which the eggs 

 are hatched, in . a manner similar to that in the first 

 section of the Syngnathi. This pouch is so situated 

 that its contents are well protected from injury from 

 the motions of the fish ; they lie in the deep angle 

 formed at the posterior part of the body, and still there 

 is enough of the tail left free beyond the pouch for 

 all the purpose of swimming and prehension. 



There are various species of Hippocampus, some 

 found in the seas of Europe, and others in the seas of 

 the south and east. Some of those of the warmer 

 seas have the tubular part of the mouth much larger 

 than those of the European seas ; and some of them 

 have filaments at the muzzle and on other parts of their 

 bodies, which increase the singularity of their appear- 

 ance. A large species which is found in the Australian 

 seas has various parts of the body furnished with ap- 

 pendages in the shape of bows, the use of which is not 

 known ; indeed we know but little of the economy 

 and habits even of the one which is occasionally 

 found upon. our own shores. That one is, 



The Short-nosed Sea-horse (H. brevirostri*}. This is, 

 not very often met with on any of the British shores ; 

 but the more southerly the place, there is the greater 

 chance of finding it, though the chance is so small 

 that one need hardly risk the getting of it as an ad- 

 venture to be undertaken on purpose. It appears to 

 occur most frequently on the shores of the Channel 

 isles ; next to that on the Channel coast of the main 

 land, and more rarely in the Bristol Channel and on 

 some parts of the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk ; but 

 we are not aware of its occurrence in the northern 

 parts of the island. 



It is a very small fish, none of the specimens ob- 

 tained in this country exceeding five inches in the 

 total length ; and, when they are curled up in the 

 state in which they are commonly exhibited as 

 museum specimens, they are not above half that 

 length. The tubular portion of the mouth is much 

 smaller in both its dimensions than the remaining 

 part of the head. The eyes are very prominent, with 

 the irides of a straw yellow ; and the spinous tuber- 

 cles over them have much the appearance of little 

 horns ; the pectoral fins are immediately in the rear 

 of the gill-cover, rather small, and containing about 

 eight rays in each ; but they are capable of being 

 erected and spread out, so as to be conspicuous for 

 their size ; the section of the body is seven-sided, one 

 of the sides being on the back, and continuous from 

 the nape to the tail ; thus, there are three ridges 

 shown upon each side, and one upon the belly ; this 

 and the one next to it on each side merge at the pos- 

 terior part of the abdomen ; and the tail is quadran- 

 gular or flat, or bare below, and on the sides with 

 four ridges; this is different from those Syngnathi 

 which carry the eggs before the vent, for in them the 

 ridges next the back merge in the continuation upon 

 the tail ; on the body the cross ridges, or transverse 

 segments of the plates, are eleven in number, with the 

 tubercles at the intersections rather prominent ; and 

 the number of segments on the tail is about thirty ; 

 the dorsal fin, which is rather higher in the female 

 than in the male, contains about sixteen rays ; and 

 the anal fin of the female, which is very small, not 

 more than four ; the general colour is pale brownish- 

 ash ; but there are traces of blue upon some parts of 

 the body ; and in the living fish there is a beautiful 

 play of prismatic colours, which fades when the fish 

 is sickly, and goes off entirely after it is dead. 



If its food were known, which it is not, this would 

 be one of the most amusing of vase fishes, as its man- 

 ners are so different from those of any other of the 

 species. The golden carp, which is our principal 

 vase fish, is pretty enough ; but it has nothing to re- 

 commend it save its colour and the ease with which it 

 can be kept in a state of confinement in fresh water. 

 The sea horse, or indeed any of the family to which 



