426 



TUFT-GILLED GROUP. 



which the typical one is best known by the short-snouted sea-horse (Hippocampus 

 antiquorum), ranging from the Atlantic and Mediterranean to Australia, and occa- 

 sionally found in the British seas. In this genus the body is more or less com- 

 pressed and deep, with its investing bony shields raised into tubercles or spines 

 of variable length ; while the back of the head is compressed into a crest, terminat- 

 ing in a well-marked knob. Small pectoral fins are present, and the males have 

 a pouch beneath the tail, with its aperture near the vent, in which to carry the 

 eggs. The curious resemblance presented by the heads of these fishes to that of 

 a horse has obviously given rise to their popular name. They are represented 



FUCUS-LIKE SEA-HORSE ( nat. Size). 



by about a score of species. A remarkable instance of resemblance to their natural 

 surroundings is afforded by the three representatives of an Australian genus of 

 sea-horses, one of which (Pliyllopteryx eques) is shown in the accompanying 

 illustration. In these fishes the body may be either compressed or as broad as deep ; 

 some or all of its smooth bony plates being furnished with long spine-like processes 

 projecting from its edges, and many of these terminating in irregular leaf -like 

 appendages. There are a pair of spines on the muzzle, and others above the eye ; 

 pectoral fins are present ; and the tail is about equal in length to the body. In 

 the absence of a pouch, the eggs are embedded in soft membranous skin on the 

 under surface of the tail. These sea-horses closely resemble the colour of the sea- 

 weeds to which they attach themselves, while the filamentous appendages of their 



